The Department of Experimental Magic
by pumped.up.kicks86
Summary: Excerpt from the daily Prophet: The Department of Experimental Magic is soon to be up and running, Minister Weasley tomorrow will cut the ribbon and officially launch this new department, headed by Hermione Granger and Draco Malfoy this reporter believes that while good may come out of the initiative there may be bad language and bubbling sexual tension. Rita Skeeter.
1. 1: flashing and plastic

1: flashing and plastic

"It is with pride and honour that I open the doors to the newest department in the Ministry, we have entered an age of enlightenment where the wizarding world can step away from the dark ages of superstition and fear and into the light of invention, growth and development. Our new staff here are the best and brightest and will work diligently and without fear to better not only our lives but our planet. This is the first department which has been co-funded by the Muggle government, with the hopes that magical technologies can aid us in repairing the damage done to the earth by both Wizard and Muggle." Minister Weasley bowed, he cut the ribbon and all applauded.

The man and woman standing at either side of the ribbon tried to smile as the camera's flashed and sparked around them, minister Weasley stood between them both, he muttered through gritted teeth "Do you smell burning?" both man and woman turned and opened the large set of doors as nonchalantly as possible, a large flame shot forward. The man grabbed the woman to the side before they slammed the door shut and turned back to the on looking camera's and public: "Seems we've begun already." the man said trying to maintain composure "Yes, experiments are definitely going on in there." the woman said holding a thumb up. Both turned again and leapt into the darkened room. Minister Weasley chewed on his bottom lip nervously as the onlookers muttered amongst themselves.

"what's happing Minister?" a reporter called.

"Has there been an accident sir?" another reporter called

Puffs, flashes and sparks started to fly up as the photographers realised they may be witnessing the biggest cock up in Wizarding history. The doors flew open again, plumes of angry black smoke followed them the photographers went into a frenzy of clicking and flashing, sparks and puffs. Draco Malfoy raised his hand and miraculously all fell silent. Hermione shook her head and rolled her eyes disgusted by his ability to lord it over everyone.

"Ladies and gentlemen I hold in my hand the first step to a new wave of magical innovation." he opened his raised hand gently to reveal… a blue blob.

" this my good people is the very first" he choked up slightly as if moved "the first …" he faltered, Hermione grinned and stepped up to the plate.

"everlasting blue tack, created in conjunction with our new friends at the Muggle company Blustic. No longer shall your sticky tack dry out… no… this shall remain sticky for eternity!" there was a pause before more flashing and shouting.

"what's Blue tack?"

"is it bio degradable?"

"can you eat it?"

"Where can we buy it?"

"Ladies and gentlemen, this is a product in the very preliminary stages of development, we have no idea what other implications this blob has to the aeronautic industry, the military, the education system… that's the beauty of DOEM, we're here to find out!" Draco Malfoy finished the opening with a smile and a wink before turning back to Hermione.

"what is that?" Hermione asked through gritted teeth.

"my pen cap melted." Draco replied, "note to self: invent everlasting blue tack… second note to self: find out what blue tack is."


	2. 2: Smoke and Bubbles

2: Smoke and Bubbles

His eyes were stinging, he tried to breathe but found it hard, the acrid pink and purple plumes of vanilla and pomegranate were killing him "oh fuck." he muttered before he felt a small pincer like hand grab his arm and drag him side ways.

"Evacuation procedure end!" a shrill voice shouted, the plumes cleared to reveal the majority of the staff lying on the floor, except for her and him.

"Well that was a complete shambles." she shouted angrily.

"It wasn't my fault, I handed out your stupid pamphlets." he choked his lunges still burning.

"Did you explain how important it was to do the bubble head charm immediately?" she questioned angrily.

"Did you need to make the "pretend" accident so bloody painful?" he snapped back.

"Yes.. Otherwise it would have just been a lark… there needs to be some sort of danger , otherwise it's just a bit of fun" she said as if this was the most obvious thing in the world.

She waved her wand and her colleagues woke, most choking, some moaning and one throwing up. She shook her head in disbelief.

"Draco, why on gods earth did you volunteer to be the safety monitor if you had no intention of promoting safety." she asked, her voice tinged with disappointed anguish.

"I did what was required of me, if they can't follow simple instructions what am I to do?" he asked his tone drawling, as was customary.

"don't act like they're the idiots… you couldn't follow the instructions, you infuriating lanky Burk!" she yelled, repressing her sudden urge to slap him upside the head.

"I'm lean, not lanky." he replied flatly.

"smashing" she clapped her hands to get the attention of the groaning group of colleagues sprawled before her. "that was a poor attempt ladies and gentlemen, if that had been an actual leak you'd all be dead, and I'd be attending your funerals. One of the stipulations when you took this job was that you study and put into practice the pre ordained health and safety measurements… if when we next do this you fail, you will all be put on notice. Do I make myself clear?" she finished, looking at them all with a Malfoy like air of disgust.

"Yes Hermione." slumped lazily, from the mouths of her colleagues followed by some mutterings of "bitch" and "Masochist".

Hermione ignored the bitch comment and turned smartly on her heels before turning again and shouting "magical Leak!" everyone panicked and several bubble head charms popped up, she smiled at them "only kidding." they groaned.

"Everybody back to work!" Draco shouted before following closely at Hermione's heels.

A.N I hope your enjoying, please read and review... and just to clarify while this is an ongoing story it's not told in a very linear, flowing way instead it's like little peaks into the daily goings on at the DOEM, so each chapter could stand alone but as part of a whole creates a bigger picture... if that makes any sense sort of like a TV show... every episode has a new story!


	3. 3: tourists and Cocks

3: tourists and Cocks

"And so we conclude our tour of the ministry of magic at the newest edition to these hallowed halls of diplomacy, law and learning. As you can see the doors are made of lead and dragon hi…" The tour guide in the purple blazer stopped suddenly as the said lead doors flew open and a man and woman exited from a plume of yellow smoke. Both were choking and both were furious.

"I told you not to add the lizard bladder… didn't I tell you?" The woman shrieked swinging her fists violently.

"You told me that you wouldn't add the lizard bladder, if I spent my life only doing things you would do then I'd be a virgin!" The man shouted back, reaching his hand out and placing it on her head to fend her off at arms length.

"For the 600th time I am not a virgin, I haven't been one since I was 18! I am an adult and demand to be treated like one!" the woman screamed infuriated.

"Your only 25 Granger, It's not like your 40… though sometimes to look at you… well it's hard to tell isn't it?" Draco looked around at the group of tourists who were now taking pictures of the couple, for confirmation of his observation.

"Shut your big ferret like face before I hex your cock off!" Hermione screamed grabbing her wand from her back pocket. The crowd stepped back slightly.

"And here we have Hermione Granger and Draco Malfoy, joint department heads for the experimental magic department." The tour guide stated happily indicating the now very still couple with a wide sweep of his arm.

"Mum… can I get my picture taken with the cock lady?" a small boy said, the crowd gasped and were quickly shuffled along by the horrified tour guide.

"is the coast clear?" a small voice came from behind the large doors.

"Yes George." Hermione said stretching lazily and looking a lot less angry.

"You think it was enough to get us off the guided tour?" George asked hopefully.

"fingers crossed." said Draco desperate never to have to face another American in an "I heart Hogwarts" TV shirt asking mundane questions about how much the doors cost, or be forced to pose in the middle of a Korean family who wanted photos with the 'very white man.'

There were pounding footsteps from along the corridor, George quickly cleared all traces of smoke with a flick of his wand and jumped back behind the large sturdy doors.

"You said Cock in front of a small child!" Minister Weasley yelled looking from one to the other.

"It's not a bad word minister, it's used by many people in the poultry industries." Hermione smiled sweetly.

"According to this insidious tour guide you said "I'll hex your cock off!" I see no relation to the "Poultry industries" Miss Granger"" Arthur snapped.

"I was referring to Mr Malfoy's sweater sir." Hermione said full of innocence and light. Draco turned full on to Minister Weasley for the first time since his arrival. Arthur tried to hide the small burgeoning smile on his face when he registered the giant cockerel on the front of Mr Malfoy's cheap looking jumper.

"I take it you want off the tour route?" he said his voice placid and more like a defeated dad.

"Oh yes please sir that would be lovely." Hermione said as if the idea were new and fresh and exciting.

"Drop the act Hermione… I've known you for too long and caught you kissing too many of my sons to fall for the 'I have no idea what's happening' act, save it for the board of trustees, they think you're a delight." Arthur rubbed his head and sighed lightly before smiling at the pair.

Hermione's angelic demeanour cracked and gave way to a mischievous smile the almost made Draco kiss her… but of course he didn't, for she was his, well friend… and he didn't like her like that… and… ah he gave up rationalising and went back to watching her ever changing face.

"It's really hard to contain the experiments as is, without having to pop out ever hour and a half to answer nosey questions about my life or the cost of things to crazy tourists." Hermione gave a lop sided smile.

"fine… but in return I want you two to attend the board of trustees and founders ball tonight… and big up your department, People need to know your worth their hard earned cash!" Mr Weasley grinned devilishly "and put your cock away Draco… nobody needs to see that." and with that and a bawdy laugh the Minister was stomping back up to his office and perhaps a quick cuppa with his misses.

"You need to see my cock don't you Granger?" Draco nudged her

"oh shut up you daft bugger."

"no look at it Granger" he nudged her again.

"mental Malfoy… that's what you are." she turned to see him stroking the large appliqué cockerel on his chest and had to laugh.

"Touch my cock Granger" he couldn't help but giggle a little, he felt like this was the kind of daft fun they could have had growing up… juvenile giggling and playfulness, it probably would have made him a different kind of man… a better man.

He was shaken out of his contemplation by Hermione grabbing a fist full of his sweater round the cockerels neck, she pulled him towards her and for a second he was thrown off balance… when their faces came within centimetres of each other she smiled and declared "I'm choking your chicken." and with that she fell into fits of laughter and ran off to her office, lop sided as she was bent double.

Draco grinned and followed hot on her heals… wherever she went he would follow.


	4. 4: Handbags and Balls

4: Handbags and Balls

Hermione slumped her head to the desk, she had spent the night at another one of the ministers fucking Balls, as the Face of DOEM it was her responsibility to put on a pretty dress and comb her hair and shake hands and stop hands touching her arse and all the other little known jobs that come with being head of department at the ministry. George entered her office excitedly;

"Right you know how when you're out and something embarrassing happens or you see someone you wish you didn't have to and you wish you could climb in your hand bag?" George said loudly making Hermione's already swimming head spin.

"What now?" was all she could muster, she placed a pen to the corner of her mouth hoping this would give the appearance of attention.

"You know how we can have massive spaces inside a trunk and if necessary people can fit in them? Well I've only gone and designed a lovely range of ladies bags which women can comfortably step into to avoid those awkward moments. Press the home button and poof your in your home, climb out the bag and you've avoided confrontation." Hermione looked up at him as if he were mad… then saw his excited little face and felt bad that she wanted to crush him with words.

"Go show Malfoy, ask him if there's any sort of travel applications or something other than women hiding in their bags from shame!" Hermione indicated he leave and he did so obediently.

She let her head fall back to the table and she groaned, secretly wishing she could crawl into her bag for a while. What had she been up to last night… she knew the only person who'd know would be him but she was worried he was what she'd been up to in her drunken state… only she didn't remember drinking that much. She put her pride to one side and picked up the intercom buzzing through to Malfoy.

"I need a word." she said shortly.

"George is in here trying to show me his hand bag… apparently you told him to come here and explain why women need a place to hide." Malfoy drawled as was expected.

"George go work on something else, the bag things on the back burner ok?" Hermione said as kindly as she could through the intercom.

"OK Boss." came Georges voice.

within a second Draco had opened the door that separated their offices and plonked down in the seat opposite her "I really think the intercoms are a bit much, we're no more than a meter away from each other."

"I don't want to have to shout… plus I like pressing the little button it makes me feel like a train conductor" she groaned a sleepy response.

"well last night was eventful!" Draco smiled.

"What happened Malfoy? I have had a complete black out." she groaned.

"I'd think so too, The Muggle Minister of defences son was slipping vodka into your drink all night."

"The 13 year old kid with a squeaky voice?" Hermione asked incredulously.

"13 and three quarters Hermione… yes he had a lovely night planned for you, I think he might have been planning to expose himself " Draco chuckled

"So he got me drunk so I wouldn't laugh at his penis?" she hollered, irritated at the fact she'd been duped and drunk at the hands of a child.

"not to worry I caught him in the act, well actually I saw him doing a while before but thought a little loosening up would suite you."

"he could have been poisoning me!" Hermione screeched then regretted it instantly and grabbed her head.

"I was vigilant, the whole night long I hardly took my eyes off you." he smirked at her annoyed face.

A memory floated into her head, she remembered thinking that he was watching her a lot that night, and it had made her skin tingle a little with delight, she shook herself back to the present.

"Where is this little shit now? I'm going to maul him."

"No your not" Draco said calmly "after I caught him red handed I quickly pointed it out to his father who reprimanded him in a public fashion causing little Pubert to cry in front of us all… it was quite delightful, his father has assured me that our young date rapist in training is off to a very private school… where the children don't get to leave." Draco stood and walked round to stand behind Hermione who was now slumped heavily on the desk.

"How did I get home?" she mumbled.

"I took you." he answered simply.

"and the change of clothes?" she asked tentatively.

"that was me too… you were sick on your pretty green dress I changed you and then washed your dress." he had somewhere in that statement placed his hands on Hermione's shoulders and was gently pulling her back into an up right sitting position.

"of course I used magic and kept my eyes closed the whole time." he started gently rubbing her shoulders… she forgot herself and slumped back leaning her head on his stomach.

"I bet you peaked." she accused tilting her head back and looking up at him.

"I did not! I was a gentleman… you know… I will always have your back Granger." he sounded almost sincere… as if to emphasis this he moved even closer to her. Hermione at these words became suddenly aware of her surroundings and her companion and stiffened moving her rolling chair swiftly forward so her stomach was almost crushed by the desk.

"That was a bit intimate Malfoy." she spluttered not knowing what else to say.

"Well I have seen you naked" he quipped a big lazy sly smirk on his face.

She turned and threw a stapler at his retreating form.

"bastard." she muttered angrily but allowed herself a small Malfoyesque smirk.


	5. 5: History and fabric Part 1

5: History and fabric 

Part 1

Hermione pulled what appeared to be a decomposed apple from her desk drawer and placed It in the black bin sack which was already quite full. She came to the bottom of her drawer and saw to her delight the small folder of press cuttings she had saved. Pictures of her and the boys after the war, her looking straight faced and harsh, them looking tired and bloodied. The pictures of the first freedom day, the stories about her love life that she had found both ludicrous and amusing and the articles about first mutterings of a new Department, she held the clipping now 2 years old in the palm of her hand and read.

_Minister Weasley has confirmed that a new developmental team has been, for the past 2 months working secretly within the ministry, although not part of any department this rogue outpost has been charged by the forward thinking minister with the task of boldly going where no others have gone before. Inventing, examining and developing new spells, potions and uses for raw magic (believed to be in surpluss within the confines of the ministry.)_

_Eugenia Plunkett, Arthur Weasley's opposition, has cried that "in a time of harsh economic cut backs, it's hardly Prudent for the minister to waste precious gold on a bunch of snot nosed kids and a shamed unspeakable to faff about with "inventing"" _

_Minister Weasley countered "that's exceptionally interesting coming from a woman who recently claimed 900 galleons on hair products as a work expense" this reporter would like at this time to comment that miss Plunkett is known for her incredibly frizzy hair. Minister Weasley continued "and a trip to the Bahamas as a diplomatic trip… I wonder what diplomats she was meeting with at the adult only hotel 'Club Innuendo'? " at this point Minister Weasley was reminded by his wife that being snarky wasn't going to help the situation and so concluded that "with new freedoms come new responsibilities, a world no longer in the grips of the dark lord should now focus it's attention on innovation and an inquiry into other uses of magic and how these can tie in with recent Muggle innovations in the technological markets… I mean who wouldn't want a magical eye pad" this writer wonders if the minister has a pirate fetish or an eye infection?_

_Temporarily heading this new rogue group is the former unspeakable Russell McGrath who retired from the ministry after rumours were spread about his use of ancient magic on Muggle appliances he was noted as saying at the time "I just wanted to get ESPN!" joining him is the brightest witch of our time Miss Hermione Granger and the joke Mogul (and the ministers son) George Weasley, today however will mark a trying and difficult time for the three who according inside sources "have been working like a well oiled machine" It has come to this writers attention that none other than former death eater and known heart throb Draco Malfoy will be joining the fledgling team. Sparks will certainly be flying. _

_Rita Skeeter._

Hermione sat back in her chair, she remembered so vividly Draco's first day, she had been so furious that he was coming into her domain. She had hated him, now… now they were partners in work and in crime, she was no longer known as Harry Potter's best friend or that girl who dated Ron Weasley, she was now a they. He was always hot on her heels, it felt like people at the ministry couldn't say her name without his;

"have you seen Granger and Malfoy about?"

"I bet it was that Draco and Hermione who blew up the toilets"

"I wonder if Hermione Granger and Draco Malfoy are doing it?" she'd over heard one office boy ask another.

She still saw her old friends and she still loved them like family but they had their own careers and relationships and families, she was a head of department now and spent most of her time at work or stalking the corridors of the ministry with Malfoy, or eating lunch with him… or dinner… or sometimes breakfast.. Most of her meals were eaten with him basically. They owled a lot from home too, and sometimes he'd invite her over for a meeting about the department… once two years ago… and she never told anyone this not even Ginny, she'd stayed up late drinking scotch with him in the old office, he had come back to hers and well although nothing had "gone on"… everything had happened, everything had changed.

_2 Years ago…._

Draco Malfoy stormed down the hall a young woman hot on his heels;

"You listen to me now Malfoy, if you're going to work here you need to be prepared for a few practical jokes!" She yelled exasperated by his childishness.

With shock she found herself banging square into him as he stopped and turned round with a snap.

"Practical jokes? You have got to be kidding… He set my head on fire!" He yelled pointing at his raw scalp, bald and burnt.

"Did it hurt?" She asked flatly.

"No… but I'm bald!" he yelled again.

"And that's something that can be fixed Malfoy, we're not wizards for nothing… fool!" she scoffed, pointed her wand at his head, uttered a few words and like magic his scalp was fixed and white blonde hair had grown into its original length and style.

"It's not the same, I'll have to have it re-cut!" he moaned looking at his reflection in the window.

"Good for you Malfoy… now if we could get back to the lab please?" Her tone was flat and her face was drained of blood.

"What's wrong with you?" Draco asked feeling irritated that Hermione was looking far more depressed than he was. She turned suddenly and pointed her wand at his chest, anger flooded every vein in her body. Draco was shocked at how furious she was, he hadn't even started baiting her yet and she was already on the edge.

She took a deep gulp of air and began: "I have no idea why you have been allowed to work here, and I think it's especially cruel for Arthur to put you in the same department as George and me. You're a scab; you're a soar on the face of the earth. You only lived because Harry allowed you to. I don't get why you aren't in Prison and quite honestly sometimes I wish you were dead. You made our lives hell, which I could almost understand but then you let death eaters into our school… our home Malfoy! You let psychopaths into the one place you were safe, the one place we were all safe. We may not have liked each other but to basically help in the slaughtering of children… you should be dead." She stopped with tears in her eyes; she shook her head and walked back towards the office.

Draco looked after her and the pang of guilt which flitted from his brain to his heart on an hourly basis seemed to bash through his chest with more force than he had felt in two years.

His first day at work in the ministry of magic had not gone as well as he had hoped. He had imagined a sort of throw back to the good old days (The time of school before he had been recruited by the death eaters to kill his head master and his class mates) hours of banter and magical experimentation backed with a satisfying amount of research. He had been quite enjoying his new life, he had spent the past years in the wizarding witness protection program, working with Harry Potter and the surviving members of the Order to track down evil wizards (including his own parents) and bring them to justice. He had played witness to over 20 cases, his identity hidden, and his words damning the defendants to a life in prison or the Dementors' kiss. He had been told he had paid his debt by none other than Harry Potter; he tried to accept this but knew deep down that his dept would never be re-paid.

With the leftover gold that had not been repossessed by the state he had bought himself a small flat in London and had prepared to find a job when none other than his saviour (much to his disgust) Harry Potter had helped get him a job in the ministry as a paid inventor/developer with some rogue operation Arthur Weasley was running.

He had only found out about the Hermione and George situation that day and had assumed that all would be well.

Of course he had been wrong; he had decided to give Granger that rant. He supposed she had every right to shout him down, he only hoped that the one he had just experienced would be the last. He followed Hermione's retreating form back to the lab. She did not hold the door for him and so when he pushed it open the room was deadly silent, George Weasley was staring at him and Hermione was staring resolutely at the conical flask on her desk, Russell the 40 year old Lab manager groaned and walked purposefully towards Draco, no hint of a smile crossing his large round face.

"Get to your bench and get some work done Malfoy!" He sighed, patting Draco on the shoulder a little harder than was necessary.

And that was what Malfoy did; he went to his bench and worked like a dog.

As the days went on the tension died, his co-workers still didn't acknowledge his presence but they did this now with ease. There were no more deliberate looks shot in his direction, no more whispers. George, Hermione and Russell spoke freely and he remained silent not really wanting to join in on their stupid conversations.

Three weeks into his new job, Draco hadn't said a word; he had picked up the files from Hermione's desk. He had re-read the notes, noting that she had not once made a mistake, he then tested the spell, charm or potion and after that he developed products and uses for them. Most of what they made didn't see the outside world being considered too outlandish, anything the ministry did not approve got sent to the Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes laboratory where Günter would process them and see if they could be used in some sort of trickery.

One fine morning a rather chipper Draco had pushed open the lab door and was shocked to see Hermione standing in her underwear looking frantically around her. Draco stood gob smacked for only a small second before turning silently to face the wall.

"Malfoy… did you see George on your way in?" she had shouted her hands on her hips.

"Talking to me now?" he asked, smirking, even though he was facing a wall.

"Don't piss me about Malfoy; I need to know where that great big ginger muff has gone!" she shouted again, Malfoy was now used to the adult Hermione Granger's colourful language. It was like she had said all the polite words in the world and needed new things to say, so she said the crudest things she could. A year working in close proximity with George and Russell probably didn't help.

"I'm sorry Granger, I didn't see him. Would you like me to grab a lab coat for you?" He said trying to hide the laughter from his voice.

"Yes… please." She had added the please as an after thought, she may swear like a trooper but her manners were still in tact.

Draco lifted a lab coat from the wall he was facing and turned suddenly looking Hermione in the eye, he expected her to blush but she didn't she just looked at him with one eye brow raised, she wasn't being provocative or in any way sexy… she was just being Granger, only in a nice black lace two piece. He didn't move his eyes away from hers; he merely placed the coat in her hand and turned without saying anything.

"Oh for god's sake, this is what happens when you work with youngsters, they get naked in the work place!" Russell walked in and on seeing Hermione pulling the lab coat on over her underwear, turned to stare at the same wall as Draco.

"It was George, he did something to my stool, I sat on it and then my clothes disappeared!" She whined hopping from foot to foot to stop the numbness caused by the cold large stone slabs.

"She didn't just strip down!" Draco chimed in smiling at the wall.

"That war did no favours to the ministry; you used to have to be over 30 to have a good position in here, now all you have to have is your NEWT'S and a penchant for trouble! I was the youngest member of staff before the war and then everyone died or went into early retirement to spend time with their families and blah blah blah… Selfish Bastards!" Russell gruffly rambled, hating the fact he was now the boss and no longer the baby.

At that moment George wandered in eating a tortilla wrap, he looked at Hermione who was trying to pull the small lab jacket closed across her front. "Well that wasn't supposed to happen!" he said slowly.

"Where have my clothes gone?" Hermione said slowly through gritted teeth.

"Well that's a puzzler, the stool was supposed to disappear… you know…not your clothes." He was pondering, tapping the wrap against his chin.

"Go home Granger and get changed!" Russell demanded.

"I can't go home, I've got a potion that's going to be ready in 10 minutes, I've been working on it for a month… and I'm not letting one of you fuck it up at the last minute!" she ranted.

"I've got clean sweats in my locker I can lend to you." Draco said, before he could stop himself. Being away from his father had made him unusually helpful. Nobody spoke, Hermione waited for Russell or George to come in with a: "Oh no need, I have the perfect outfit for you!" but she knew that would be a wasted hope.

"Thanks." She said dully. And forgetting her dignity or lack of, she walked right out into the hall and across to their office locker room. A small area with 5 large chests, each containing potions, quills, paper and spare clothes… or at least that was the plan, Hermione's locker contained hair bobbles and an out of date sandwich.

Draco walked calmly after her, when he got into the room he saw Hermione had clearly realized what she had done. She was sitting on the bench pale and biting her lip.

"I just walked across the hall of the ministry with nothing on but a lab coat and some underwear." She said aloud although to her self.

"Yes you did." Draco said smiling and putting the pile of clothes on her lap.

"I did… Thanks." She said, her eyes miles away she stood and pulled off the lab coat not paying attention to Draco. He noticed a large scar ran across her stomach; there were smaller scars round her arms. She was only in the jogging bottoms and had noticed Draco staring at her wrists;

"I'm not a self harmer, everyone see's them and because I'm a girl, they assume it's because I self harm." She looked at him for a response.

"Granger… you're in your bra, I don't think now's the time for a discussion on how people perceive you." Draco said clearing his throat slightly after he had said her name.

"Malfoy, you are a prude. I was a soldier on the front lines of a war, I was on the run for months… trust me people have seen me in far worse states than this. I think when you're living hand to mouth in a bush with death eaters trying to kill you; you become less worried about superficial things like body consciousness." She stated her hands taking their preachy place on her hips.

"I thought you were embarrassed about running through the corridor?" Draco was confused; he hadn't realized just how much she had changed. She did appear to have the mentality of a veteran soldier.

"I don't want a reputation as, you know… a person who parades in their panties at the work place!" her hands were raised as if this was obvious, the shine of the scar tissue on her wrist caught Draco's eyes.

"I got them in your house; they tied me up so tight the chord scarred my wrists." She stated bluntly pulling on the sweater.

"Sorry." He said automatically, he had met quite a few people who had suffered under his father's hands, he had always said sorry. He didn't know why he felt the compulsion; he just knew that it had to be said.

She just looked him; she saw the guilt in his face. She could see it in him, every time he walked silently into the lab, he didn't speak, he didn't insult and he didn't smirk, well not a lot. Hermione thought it was decidedly creepy: "I'm sure you are." Hermione said sincerely before walking into the lab to take her potion off the boil.

Draco stood at his desk, he watched Hermione roll up the sleeves of his sweat shirt and wave her wand rapidly at a mouse which suddenly grew wings and took flight.

"I don't know what it is I'm trying to achieve by giving the mouse wings George?" She questioned the inventor of this charm.

"I was thinking we could retail them as Christmas decorations!" George said cheerily grabbing the mouse and placing a tiny tutu on it.

"That's sick." Hermione snorted looking at the terrified mouse now flying frantically about the room before dropping dead in the centre.

"Oh dear." George said as he picked up the mouse and threw it in the bin.

"I'm not killing any more mice for you George! Em… Malfoy, are you going anywhere nice for freedom day?" Hermione enquired drawing funny looks from everyone in the room including Draco.

"No I'll just stay at home and get some work done." He said calmly though looking at her questioningly.

"Dullard!" George stated as he walked behind his desk.

"Are you doing something nice?" Draco asked George, he was trying to sound polite but ended up sounding like an old person talking to a 4 year old.

George just looked at him, silence filled the room. Russell looked at George and then both men turned to Hermione who gave them a savage look. She sighed and leaned on her desk; "well I for one am going to take advantage of an empty office to get some proper work done." She stated as if this were the best idea ever for a holiday.

"That sounds… em…. Exciting!" Draco said sarcastically.

"Well It's a month away I might make other plans, but if nothing comes up I will get that desk cleared out and my paper work done… Oh I might do an inventory!" she was actually getting excited at the thought of administrative work.

"Here Malfoy, you and Granger should start the Ministries first Under 30 boring club!" Russell laughed loudly at his very dire attempt at humour.

George looked stunned, why was everyone suddenly being nice to Malfoy. If getting on everyone's good side could be achieved by lending clothes to Hermione then the world was a strange place. Admitting defeat he turned to Draco and stated loudly; "I'm doing something well exciting so I shan't be joining your club!" Russell thought this was hysterical and fell bent double in the room, George also burst out laughing. Hermione with her eyebrows raised and her mouth contorted looked from the hysterical men to Draco who was looking back at her with equally high eyebrows. Both shrugged their arms up in a "What the hell?" gesture then went back to work.

Hermione Granger stood in her lab looking around woefully; a month had passed since Draco had leant her his sweats. The atmosphere in the office had improved dramatically. Draco was still very quiet but at least his presence was now acknowledged.


	6. 5: History and Fabric Part 2

5: History and Fabric

Part 2

It was freedom day and Hermione had turned down literally hundreds of offers to parties and celebrations, about 99 of the invitations were from people she didn't know who wanted to celebrate the day with a hero.

She was offered hundreds of galleons, holiday homes abroad, yachts and dragons but she would never accept. To her, freedom day was less about her freedom and more about the people who had been lost in the fight for that freedom. The kids in Hogwarts who fought so that their fellow students could live in a world free of Voldemort, they where who occupied her mind on freedom day.

She closed her eyes and stretched, her back cracked silently. She'd been doing some inventory work and the bending hadn't suited her. She sat down on the hard stone floor and pulled a bottle of Famous Phoenix Whiskey from the cabinet she had just alphabetised, pulling the lid off she took a swig and silently recited the names of the dead, finishing her list she took another huge swig and made to stand up.

She was stopped in her tracks however when Draco Malfoy staggered into the room, she couldn't see his face as his head hung low, but there was no mistaking it was him. That shock of blonde hair could only belong to one man.

"Are you alright Malfoy?" Hermione called from the floor.

"I'm fine… I didn't know you were in today." He didn't sound fine, his voiced sounded muffled and milky. Hermione stood and strode towards him; she saw blood in his hair and another trail of blood leading from the door.

"Jesus Christ… what happened to you Draco?" Use of his first name indicated sincere concern.

"Freedom day just reminds people that I shouldn't have mine… a couple of guys outside a pub on Diagon Alley just got a little rowdy." He said not lifting his head.

She placed a finger under his chin and lifted his face to hers; it was too painful to resist her firm push so he allowed her to do it. Both of his eyes were swollen and red, he had a gash on his forehead and his lip was burst.

"That's more than a bit rowdy Malfoy, that's GBH!" she started inspecting his face even closer.

"It's fine…" He protested but she cut in.

"Oh shut up Malfoy, your face is busted up… now stop being such a man and take off your shirt." She stated bluntly.

"That's a bit forward, couldn't we start with a meal?" he asked trying to smirk but finding it too hard. Little did he know this slight flirtation would trigger a new dynamic in the Granger/Malfoy relationship.

"Don't flatter yourself pretty boy…" She retorted but was interrupted.

"You think I'm pretty?" He asked in a high girlish voice. She chuckled, she actually chuckled.

"You're bleeding through your shirt, and unless you want to bleed to death I suggest you take it off and let me patch you up!" She said slightly irritated but still grinning.

He complied and started to pull his shirt over his head, he struggled slightly attempting to stretch the tight neckline over his already throbbing face. He lowered the shirt back over his shoulders and took a breath. Hermione sighed and placed her hands under the top and up his chest to where the neckline was. She stretched it with her hands then began slowly lifting it over his head, he raised his arms and she completed the job by running her hands up his arms and pulling the top off his finger tips. She realised a little late that the whole encounter had been a bit too erotic for her liking, she had subconsciously lingered a little too long on his fore arms and she had made more skin on skin contact than was really required.

She remained silent as did Malfoy, she cleaned his wounds opting to use the wand rather than a cloth. She then had to manually apply the healing salve to the wounds, she cleaned her hands then poured a liberal amount into both and without warning she starting rubbing it (a little too vigorously at first) into the two gashes on Draco's torso. She was rubbing it in slowly now looking just at her hands, Draco was staring at the side of her face, she could feel his eyes on her and it made her more nervous. Her hand shook a little the combination of alcohol, extreme emotions and lets face it… banging sexual tension making her head swim.

"Are you pissed Granger?" Malfoy suddenly broke the tension, a mild chuckle tainting his voice.

"Me?… yes a wee bit." she confessed, still not looking at him.

She scraped some of the salve onto her pinkie then raised it to the cut on his head and rubbed it in gently; he winced slightly but saved face. She was very close to him, he could feel her breath on his face. She leaned forwards lightly then jumped back suddenly, she knew what she had been about to do but she couldn't admit it. She was going to kiss the wound and say "all better." She had no idea why, she had never done that to anyone before.

"All better?" Malfoy asked as if reading her mind. She was staring off into the distance thinking, her brows furrowed her lip being bitten to bits.

"Are you ok?" he continued trying to grab her attention.

"mmm… thinking." she said quietly.

"about?" Malfoy pushed himself up to perch on the bench.

"It's a shit day for everyone, we can bake freedom cakes and wear freedom badges, get pissed out our nuts and parade the streets in celebrations… eventually we'll all be dead and the kids wont really understand it… it'll just be a party… but for us… it's just shit." her head slumped, he sighed.

"I'm really sorry, I'm clearly making this worse… I'm just an awful reminder." he slid off the table and made to grab his shirt.

"No… come with me eh?" she said grabbing his hand.

"Where?"

"just come… neither of us should be alone… it's just a bad day for being lonely ok." up until that point she had been staring at nothing, orating her own inner monologue, but on the final word she had turned sharply to him and conveyed something with her stare.

"ok." was all he could muster

She had spun into him grabbing his topless form and apparating them to her small living room. He made to step away from her but found that he couldn't, she was sobbing gently into him.

"… em… are you ok?" he patted her head uncomfortably.

She stepped back and took a steadying breath; "yeah… I'm fine, I think I just spent too much time in my own head today." she tried to laugh but failed, instead she opted for a cure and headed to the small cupboard where she kept her good scotch.

"glass?" she asked him indicating the bottle.

"yes please." he responded not knowing how to take the whole situation.

She indicated for him to sit as she passed the very large glass of scotch.

"I've been thinking about you…" she stopped and saw him trying to pull back the look of shock plastered on his face. "not like that, she continued." pacing in front of the still curiously topless Malfoy now perched with a glass of scotch on her sofa.

"I… I think I need to say sorry." she said looking at him with tear filled eyes.

"why?" Draco was perplexed, had she stolen something from him.

"What I said to you when you first starting working with us. You shouldn't be dead and you shouldn't feel the guilt you do."

"I did awful things…" he interjected

"You were forced to do awful things… we… both of us were forced to be, well soldiers and that's bad enough but at least I'll always know I was on the good side… you were on the bad side and worse than that I think you knew it, I think you knew you were on the wrong side the whole time. That must have been awful." she perched on the coffee table in front of him, he was looking away.

"How do you know I knew?" he asked trying not to show his feelings.

"back at school, there were whisperings of you breaking down in the toilets… I met your parents remember I know how persuasive they could be, they did bad things to you and I know how much you loved your mother, you would have done anything for her… I know these things because I read your file when I was in the order. But I need to say sorry because I couldn't see past the Malfoy's to try and help… If one of us had just reached out before the attack on Hogwarts we could've helped you… but we were all so blinded by our hatred. We all had each other and we had right on our side. You were just a kid who's parents were evil and made you do evil things… you were never bad Draco… never evil… you were just scared and it took you longer to find your bravery because you were doing it alone… but you helped punish the wrong and well I just think you should know and I should be able to say… especially on freedom day… You shouldn't feel guilty Draco you're just as much a victim… we were children for fucks sake… stop feeling guilty." She had paused a few times, trying to work out the right way to say the things she felt she had to say.

"I can't." he responded dully.

"You must, I see you quietly going about, quietly helping us, Harry say's you've helped put away more death eaters than him… whatever debt you owed to society you paid off long ago, it's freedom day, free yourself!" she patted his hand.

"ok." was all he could muster, he was choking back sobs that had remained under lock and key for 20 years.

"I'm going to get you a clean shirt." she had stood and left the room, allowing him space.

When she had returned his eyes had been a little red but his glass was empty and he seemed a little more comfortable, he had put on the slightly small tshirt with no qualms and they had stayed up long into the night remembering their early childhood spats: The mean names she had called him, the time he had tried to blow her skirt up with a charm and had ended up inflating Crabbe, the time she had punched him.

"The Yule ball…" he said wistfully leaning back the ALF tee riding up his abs.

"God… what a painful pubescent memory, Ron was a prick." she scoffed into her third glass.

"Yup." Malfoy swigged playfully.

"What do you know about it blondie?"

"Oh my… who wasn't aware of "Ron's big Mistake"… there was a pool in hufflepuff about when he'd ask you, I heard he asked you as a last minute "Friend" type thing." Malfoy grimaced.

"You were all very well informed." she said sceptically.

"Yes well… the golden trio was ore like the golden love triangle to the rest of the school, gosh I remember some ravenclaw perched on a wall near the greenhouses she was regaling some younger students on your love saga… all very misinformed I must say… according to a fourth year it was better than Dawsons Creek, which I assume must be a muggle term for canoodling." Draco smirked swilling his nearly empty glass.

"HA! Only in Hogwarts, the Yule ball must've gave them all something to yack about." she grinned.

"Of course it did, Victor Krum the superstar struts into the great hall with Hermione Granger on his arm, this girl who everyone refers to as a wallflower enters the hall and outshines a celebrity, you were like the sun and he was like a candle… and merlin, you were breathtaking…" he stared off into the middle distance when suddenly and subtly his eye's widened a fraction of a centemeter as he realised how very frank he'd been.

"wow… you really were paying attention." she couldn't conceal the blush creeping up her cheeks.

"It was hard not to, I think Crabbe literally stopped eating for a month in what Madame Pomphre deemed the worst case of love sickness she had seen... because of you." he chuckled a little at the memory.

Hermione had smiled and they had sat chatting, bonding, knowing that after that night things would be much different.

One year later:

_Minister Weasley has announced that the small rogue operation unofficially known as experimental magic will, over the next 12 months, be formed into a fully functioning Department. An extension is being built next to the raw magic storage facility within the Ministry. Minister Weasley has stated this is for conveniance though others have wondered whether its more to do with the safety of the rest of the building. In the past year several amazing developments have emerged from these wunderkind's not excluding the best magical serum this witch has ever seen. _

_Russell McGrath the leader of this gang of nutty professors has announced he will not be heading this new department but has instead opted for an early retirement it has been reported he is priming both Miss Granger and Mr Malfoy to take over his role. In related news an inside source at the ministry has told me that Miss Granger and Mr Malfoy appear to be more than colleagues though both in question deny anything of the sort… this reporter will hold judgement. _

_Rita Skeeter. _

Hermione, sat back at her desk folding away the old clippings.

"reminiscing?" a voice came from the doorway

"Yep." was all she replied trying to act unfazed by his sudden appearance.

"We've got to go to that drinks thing" he said pulling her wheely office chair round to face him.

"happy freedom day." she said as she stood and hugged him briefly.

"same to you" he said as she pulled away, he noted her dress.

"you look… beautiful."

"I knew there was a reason I stopped hating you… flattery will get you every where Malfoy." she said her back to him, walking with purpose out of the offices of their department.

"I hope so." he mumbled as he headed out after her.


	7. 6: Lady Viagra and Kittens

**a/n: I owe you all a massive apology, my "m" key is playing up big time and as a result you have had to slog few quite a few oves and fro's I promise that I shall go back and try to correct my mistakes… just not right now. As I post this I must let you know that the next chapter is already done.**

**I've been writing on this site since I was a kid but after much consideration left my old moniker where it belonged… in the past… I've found a return to ff has really helped me in my real life work and am so grateful to all of you who read this story and to the few who've been interested or amused enough to leave a review I thank you whole heartedly.**

6: Lady Viagra and Kittens

"MALFOY!" a strangled yelp came from Hermione's private lab, Malfoy who had at that very moment been contemplating irritating the working woman took his cue and bounced through her office and opened the door to the lab. Hermione was standing her legs crossed tightly and her knuckles white from gripping her bench. He shook his head laughingly at her strained appearance.

"Right… well… so here's the thing… I was working on this potion that I thought would help women in their menopause… a hormone balancer for witches kind of thing."

"I'm aware of your current projects, I'd like to know why you called for me?" he almost grinned he was so amused.

"Ok… Well… See…. You know how witches have really bad magic expulsions from their bodies because of changing hormones and this causes a lot of house fires and bush fires and the like."

Draco couldn't help but snigger.

"well I tried to magically enhance hormones to create a mood enhancing vapour and well here's the thing… it's all gone a bit tits up Malfoy." her voice was becoming strained, he was starting to worry but was also feeling strange... Just strange.

"what's happened Granger?" his voice serious.

"mmm… there was a minor explosion and a… mmm… massive puff of smoke and essentially what I've gone and invented here is lady Viagra… extreme lady Viagra… I feel like… I don't know how else to say this Malfoy but I can't ask anyone else to come in here… I need you to note… oh my… note down my, you know… notes… I cant keep my hand steady." she shuddered as she spoke.

"Are you ill Hermione?" use of her given name indicated actual worry.

"Nope…mmm… really really for lack of a better word aroused. But not normal arousal like when you see cowboys bathing in creeks or hot Argentinean drummers who wink at you in bars… that was a bit more detail than you needed, write that down!" she writhed on the spot unable to stay still.

"the stuff about the wet cowboys?" Draco asked feeling mildly panicked and also a little aroused himself.

"no loss of mental filter, the crumbling of inhibitions and the inability to remain still as side effects" she growled thumping the table.

"right you are Granger" Draco began writing furiously. Hermione grabbed the hem of her while lab coat and pulled it down tight.

"what are you feeling now?" Draco moved to sit beside her at the bench.

"Oh no… you need to move away now Draco… oh dear! Right no away… be gone! And note heightened sense of smell having a very distinct effect on the main symptom."

"my smell?" he moved a little closer to her, her knees buckled sending her falling he caught her up easily before she hit the ground he held her trembling, panting, sweating, pheromone deploying frame "I think we need to get a medic." he said quietly trying to not focus on the way her constant moving hip brushed against him dangerously.

"Oh Malfoy… this is very difficult, I really want to, you know… but…" Malfoy suddenly interrupted her.

"was there any testosterone in this concoction of yours?" his heart was pounding and his blood rushing.

"of course… oh dear, It'll wear off I've turned on the extractors it's nearly cleared just wait it out yea?" she was biting her bottom lip and he still hadn't moved away from her.

"or we could just take advantage of the situation?" Draco growled leaning low to her and breathing lightly on her neck. She moaned loudly, and had to stop herself from exploding.

"if me just breathing on you does that then imagine…" he let his actions speak louder than words he gently pushed his hips forward brushing against her, letting her imagine.

"Oh my god." she shuddered then wretched a little "I am so turned on I think I might puke… ahh… write it down, nausea and…" he breathed gently on her neck and chuckled a little. "Your enjoying this Malfoy." she growled. "and so are you Granger, that's blatant." he whispered knocking her sideways like his gentle breath had been a gale. He grabbed her outstretched arm as she toppled like a felled tree.

"write down loss of control of limbs." her legs twitched erratically. He was worried again and lifted her bodily, sitting her on the work bench, he reached into a drawer and pulled out a small Taylor reflex hammer. "can you Feel your legs Granger is there tingling?"

She looked at him derisively "everything is tingling Malfoy… for fucks sake I can feel them, they just wont stop twitching." he patted her knee gently with the hammer, her leg shot up and she yelped.

"did it hurt?" his face full of concern and raw animal, ancient, caveman lust.

"not exactly… it was…mmm…Malfoy you need to get out of here, I can't be accountable for my actions."

"Granger…I have complete trust in your judgement, I await your actions with bated breath." Hermione made to rearrange her crossed legs, Draco took advantage of her separated knees and stepped between them, her legs now either side of his hips.

"See, now you don't have to worry, I'm making the moves on you, you don't have to account for my actions, im the fool here, no humiliation… I take full responsibility for clearly taking advantage of a…" he kissed her neck gently making her buck a little "damsel in distress" she bit her lip and nodded as if his logic had swayed her.

He hooked his arms round her bottom and slowly slid her to the edge of the table her twitching legs were hard to control, he enjoyed the challenge. He moved his face towards hers slowly and sniffed the light perfume on her hair, her pheromones screamed for him, he couldn't smell them but he could feel them clinging to his skin and seeping into his pores making his blood like lava.

He pressed his hot lips against hers and she sighed a delightful sigh into his mouth, the kiss deepened and she leaned back, he stretched standing on tip toe's trying to maintain contact. It was explosive and mind blowing and sensational, had she been in a movie standing in a black and white train station with a feathered hat her leg would have been kicked up behind her and orchestral music would be booming out as credits rolled… but alas this was no movie. She pulled away from him suddenly and wiped her hand over lips a grin on her face:

"well that's that then!" she pushed him out of the way and hopped off the desk.

"what's what?" he asked as anger and fear pumped through him and the loss of contact.

"It's worn off, told you it would… I can't believe you were going to take advantage of me!" she gabbed her note pad and quill.

"It was… well I was affected what with all the testosterone…" he cried defensively.

"a miniscule amount of testosterone." she chimed as she continued to write.

"and the pheromones… I could smell them… they were intoxicating, I swear!" he raised his hand trying to do a scouts salute like he'd seen Hermione do in the past, he inadvertently did a Vulcan salute instead., she chuckled at him.

"I'll note that down, increased pheromone secretion… any other side effects Ma…" she stopped suddenly "note this down…" she threw him the quill and paper "it seems all the blood has run from my head and I'm going to faint" and with that she did landing with a flump on the floor.

At that moment George entered the room looking worse for ware and a little bloodied, the pockets of his large over coat squirmed slightly.

"What's wrong with the boss?" he asked indicating the prostrate Hermione.

"I'm the boss too." Draco said defensively, still feeling a little caveman-ish.

"yeah… but she's the real boss!" George said, quickly pulling his hand away from the wriggling pocket. As if he'd spoken some magic words Hermione sat up rubbing her head "how long was I out for?" she sighed.

"less than a minute." Draco answered trying to avoid eye contact for no good reason.

"write that down." she groaned getting to her feet, she quickly noted George's anxious stance and frowned.

"What's in your pockets George?" she asked suspiciously.

"ok you know how it's always been my dream to be a YouTube star?" George reasoned.

"Well you only found out what YouTube was about a week ago George so I'm guessing 'always' is being used a bit loosely here." Hermione countered.

"Well anyway, you know how the best YouTube videos are of kittens and Pandas… well I couldn't fit a Panda in my office so I went and got 15 white kittens and tried to paint their eyes black and well… they've revolted some what… Only Zazzy and Albert have stuck by me." and with that from the two pockets he pulled two tiny white kittens with painted black eyes, the one in his left hand quickly sunk tiny razor sharp teeth into his hand before leaping free and scampering over to Hermione.

"It appears Albert's join the revolt!" George sighed petting the docile zazzy lovingly.

"Malfoy, go be a boss and sort this mess out… I'll clean up in here." she said curtly. As Malfoy was about to leave the room she stopped him.

"It's just as well it ended when it did, could've been a lot messier Malfoy." she said seriously.

"right." was all he could muster, his inner cave man still struggling. Perhaps a dose of violent kittens was just the antidote to Hermione.

As he closed the door behind him, Hermione moved to pick up the scattered papers and vials that had moved out of their way she smiled a little to herself, she'd never tell him that the vapour had worn off before he'd kissed her. She tried to pretend to herself that she had no idea why she'd kept up the pretence, but she knew why… She'd wanted to know what is was like to Kiss Draco Malfoy.

Albert the panda kitten mewed happily and followed her back to her office.


	8. 7: Emails and Females

7: emails and females

_**TECH BOOM ROCKS WIZARDING WORLD**_

_The wizarding world, halted in progress for decades by a tyrant, has blasted into the 22nd century with all wands blazing. The recent explosion in muggle born businesses and the dynamic way in which young wizards are utilizing tech developments in the Muggle world has boosted growth in what many believed would be a post war downturn. _

_Muggle born wizard and CEO of I-wand Justin Finch-Fletchley explains how he first thought to cross muggle technology and wizarding life " during the war muggle borns utilized the internet to coordinate attacks on the snatchers, I had gotten quite good at tinkering with electrical goods as a youngster and did the same when I was on the run… The original I-wand was a sheet of metal with a computer chip it looked muggle so I knew the snatchers wouldn't be interested. I enchanted and wired it up to record messages which could be passed on, so muggle borns could communicate with those in the wizarding world… when the war ended I applied for an experimental licence and with some help from Hermione Granger and her team the I-wand was tested, re-tested and deemed releasable to the general wizarding population. Sales have been incredible; wizards are finding the joy of portable music while muggle borns are glad they can now listen to their muggle music in highly magical places." _

_When asked about what was in his future he replied "we've recently come up with a filter for muggle devices like computers, so wizards can use them in areas of high magic like the ministry or Hogwarts… the minister's very excited about it, he's been dying to get an ipad!" This reporter is still stumped as to what's wrong with the ministers eye but hopes he finds what he's looking for. _

_Rita Skeeter _

Hermione stood with her back straight, a firm but reassuring smile plastered on her face. She was wearing one of her better suits, tailored grey blazer white shirt and knee length pleated skirt with a flirty hem. Draco, as was now habit, stood a few inches behind her looking territorial. George ran in hurriedly, a pile of files spilling from his arms, his read sweater was askew and zazzy the only loyal panda kitten was clawing at his trouser leg;

"I can't do it boss, I won't do it… I don't work well with others." He hollered staring at Hermione.

"You do and you will George; your father is backing me up here, if you want to remain in this department you will find a partner. You need someone to focus you and brainstorm with you." Hermione said firmly.

"You need someone to say "hey George lets maybe not spend all our time breeding panda kittens that we can't get rid of"" Draco added emphatically.

"Fine." George railed lifting his arms in the air dramatically, the folders and files flew across the floor, one remained in his hand "I choose this one." He shoved the file into Malfoy's hands before storming off. Hermione cleared the other files with a swish of her wand, and remained in place.

"This is a very exciting day Malfoy." She beamed.

"for you maybe, for me… well it's just more work." The door opened and a porter entered with a large box marked "I-Wand corp" hovering before him.

"You need to sign for these miss." He squeaked handing her a piece of parchment.

"Gladly." She took quill and paper in hand and quickly signed her name before handing them to Draco "you need to sign too."

"This is what you got dressed up for… to sign Stan's docket?" Draco asked incredulously.

"I told you it's an exciting day, we've got our filter packs!" she squealed happily before snatching the large box and scurrying off to her office. Stan stared after her dreamily.

"Oi Stain!" Draco shouted snapping the young man out of his reveries.

"it's Stan, sir." The young man said quietly.

"that's what I said, why don't you shuffle off back to the dungeons and keep your greasy little eyes off Miss Granger." Malfoy hissed a little too angrily.

"I was just…" Stan tried to defend

"perving." Hermione's said, sticking her head round her door observing the two men "come on Draco it's time to get computerized." She smiled at her co boss and Stan ran like the wind from the Department.

* * *

Two weeks later and Hermione couldn't have been happier, she could now use her Ipad in the ministry without it speaking to her in Korean or cracking up in some way. The blue gel pad stuck to the back of her device crackled harmlessly absorbing the raw magic in the air, The D.O.E.M and the Department of International Magical Cooperation were the only two offices who had opted to test drive a new cyber system for the Ministry. Hermione was well aware that Plumtree in international's had only agreed after much pushing from his counterpart in America who was already part of a computerized organisation and was worried about the owls dying of exhaustion.

She picked up her ipad and opened her new mail client Wizenet, she bit her lip, thinking for a moment and then began to type.

_To: _pandakittensforsale#wizenet

_Cc: hotblonde80#wizenet_

_From: hermionegranger#wizenet_

_Subject: Work_

_Dear George, _

_I've CC'd Malfoy in so don't talk about him… firstly… really? I let you choose your own emails and this is what you both come up with? I knew it was a bad idea, secondly… have either of you arranged a meeting with the candidate George picked? I'd really like to get a move on with this please so get it done… thirdly, George your panda kittens have gone viral, well done, the department of improper magic are worried the muggles might get suspicious but luckily there's a few savvy kids in that dep now and they've explained that anything can happen on youtube… that said enough is enough! Your work is suffering George. Ok, well… that's all I have to say just now… Oh accept this, everything you access at work on your computer can be reviewed by the head of your department and the minister so please… nothing weird. _

_Much Love_

_The boss. _

_To: hermionegranger#wizenet_

_Cc: pandakittensforsale#wizenet_

_From: Therealboss#wizenet_

_Subject: _

_Dearest Co Workers_

_I hope you like my new email Granger, is that more appropriate? I've dealt with the applicant. George please stop sending me links to your videos, it's very annoying… I really don't understand why I need to type this to you? I'm a mere 10ft away._

_From_

_The real Boss. _

_P.S "Much Love?" does that constitute harassment _

_To: Therealboss#wizenet_

_From: hermionegranger#wizenet_

_Draco, _

_Stop dicking about, You need to set a good example… you annoying…_

Hermione placed her ipad down careful not to fall to her instinct which was to throw it across the room. Draco's mood recently had been clawing at her, he was particularly irritating of late and Hermione had been at the rough end of the stick for most of it. It had been going on for a few weeks now, one minute he'd be teasing her relentlessly about her hair or how the porters stared at her butt and the next he'd be bighting the head off of anyone who even dared to look at Hermione in the wrong way. She sighed and made her way through the doors to Draco's office, he was sitting waiting for her, a grin plastered on his stupid face, his eyes glittering with mischief "Hello Granger, it's nice to see your face, I was starting to worry all this emailing would cut down on our "alone time" he smirked winningly and she felt a little bit of anger drip away "you wound me up to get me in here?" she half asked, half stated.

"I had to take drastic measures, I've been reading up on social network addiction and I was worried you had it… I've also discovered "intervention" and I think we should have one for you, you're always looking at that book of faces and poking people… it's weird." He had stood somewhere in his spiel and ushered her into the empty seat across from him.

"I take it your learning lots of new things on the internet?" she asked, giving into his hands leading her to the chair.

"yes… for example, did you know that if you misspell analyze lots of porn…" he was interrupted.

"Yes, yes I was aware of that thank you…" she said covering her face with her hands

"and did you know that if you search "Hermione Granger" there is quite a lot of… well lets just say risqué literature." Hermione looked at him in shock.

"excuse me?" Hermione asked incredulously.

"Yes, the internet has taught me Granger that someone has taken your name and aspects of your character and used them in pornographic literature, a popular Muggle book called 50 shades of Silver, I went out and bought one today." He lifted a large glossy book from his desk and brandished it happily "I take it you don't know Twinkles Cockfoster?" he indicated the author… she made to say no, but something stopped her. She did know that name, as weird as it sounded she knew that name.

_"you take your first pets name and the name of the first street you lived on and that's your porn star name!" Ginny had told her, all the girls in the common room had giggled. _

_"Crookshanks Peartree?" Hermione asked feeling a little dumb. _

_"Mine would be Twinkles Cockfoster." A girl had giggled loudly, they had all laughed, even Hermione had laughed, she remembered but who said it…_

"Lavender Brown… that scheming little…" she was interrupted by Draco again.

"I've already had words with law enforcement they're looking into it, but judging by sales it's already a best seller, we're probably a little late." He placed it down on the desk.

"We?" Hermione asked.

"Oh yes, your not the only one mentioned in this book… your steamier moments take place with a devilishly handsome Draco Silver." He lifted the book and opened it at a marked page and began to read.

"Hermione Granger entered the bleak drawing room, her eyes stung with tears of fear as she crept through what she hoped would turn out to be another empty room. A figure silhouetted by moonlight walked to her "you've found me?" he said more as a question "Draco?" Hermione moaned before leaping at the man in front of her, his eyes so penetrating his hands so masterful, she felt her core throb…" Draco was interrupted in his recital.

"that's enough of that. Give it here." She snatched the book from him. "I've got another copy at home." Malfoy grinned.

"I forbid you to read this! I'm going to kill her… I hope you know that… I'm going to kill her." Hermione made to storm from the room.

"I've memorised all the good bits." Draco smirked and continued to recite "She grabbed at his hard manhood and pumped it slowly." Hermione was rounding on Malfoy her face flush with rage as she started swatting him with the book, he laughed loudly and continued ducking her blows "Silver groaned into the birds nest bushel of hair which Hermione had never learned to tame."

"Birds Nest Bushel?" Hermione screamed in rage continuing to pummel Malfoy with the book.

"Excuse me?" a tall and awkward looking woman in her 20's stood in the doorway, George stood behind her looking furious.

"Can I help you?" Hermione panted, she noticed perhaps a little too late just how close she and Draco where, their legs were almost entwined, Draco had one arm round her waist and the other was holding the wrist guiding the pummelling book. She tried to dislodge herself and almost fell backwards so he tightened his grip on her waist.

"Mr Malfoy told me to report for work today." She said in a barely audible whisper.

Hermione finally extricated herself from Draco's grip and made to greet the girl who was a good head and shoulders taller than her, she was caught off by George who barged past the girl and now stood bent a little so his face was close to Hermione's

"Who is she?" he growled in a whisper.

"I'm about to find out numb skull, now be nice." Hermione shoved him aside and outstretched her hand to the girl.

"I'm Hermione Granger and you are?" she asked nicely.

"I'm Sparkle Wohlfahrt." She said quietly looking at her feet. Hermione was tempted to ask if this was her porn star name but bit her tongue.

"it's so nice to see you again, I was very impressed with your interview and references. Mr Weasley is lucky to have you." Draco said with surprising sincerity.

"Thanks Mr Malfoy, I'm so glad out of all the applicants you picked me." She tried to make eye contact but failed at the last minute.

George was almost blue in the face, this girl walks in and puts her stuff on his spare bench, then shakes his hand and tells him she's his new partner… then zazzy abdicates to her… He was fuming "I'm sorry… I know this is like inappropriate or something… but I'm not working with a… with a…" George was interrupted.

"Muggle born?" Sparkle asked a hint of despair in her voice.

"No! A Girl!" George bellowed.

"Excuse me George Weasley but I'll think you'll find I'm a girl too!" Hermione shouted waving a finger in his face.

"You're a Hermione… you don't count!" George wailed his point not coming across at all. Hermione had made to speak but had been interrupted by Draco who looked as mad as Draco.

"Doesn't Count?" Draco shouted "She's the epitome of girl George, she's lovely and feminine and it's about time you crack pot Weasley's saw that! Apologise to her." He had softened his tone at the site of Sparkles shocked face.

"I'm sorry boss." George sighed guiltily.

"It's fine George just… just go show Sparkle the ropes." Hermione said quietly, giving George a placating smile.

"Ok… but I wont call you Sparkle… makes me feel like you'll turn into a unicorn at any second." George said looking seriously at the nervous girl before him.

"Sparks is fine." She said hopefully.

"Sparks it is then, come on I'll need to show you the panda kitten nursery." George sighed and led the girl out of the room.

"right… well that's that sorted finally!" Hermione smiled "good work Malfoy."

"aren't you going to pummel me again with the book?" he indicated 50 shades of silver still clutched in her hand.

"nah… I'll be requesting my lawyer see if I can sue the bint but I'll leave it with them… no more pummelling or death threats." She sighed straightening her blouse.

"that's a shame." He smirked before seating himself back behind his lush desk.

"Thanks, by the way." She had her hand on the door knob, her other hand still clutching the book.

"For what?" Malfoy asked genuinely curious.

"Sticking up for me, they've always taken my gender for granted… I didn't think anyone noticed." She laughed lightly.

"well… it needed to be said, needs to be said to that fruit shoot Ron also might I add." Malfoy sneered a little when Ron's names passed his lips.

"another time perhaps." Hermione smiled before leaving the room… she entered her private sanctum and locked the door behind her preparing to see what smutty nonsense her old school frienemy had spewed in to the literary world… she kicked off her shoes and sank into her executive chair and opened the book at a random page, as she read a blush crept up her neck. Her Ipad bleeped and she looked over to see a message from Draco

"Wait till you get to page 197." It read, Hermione blushed even harder and snapped the book shut before storing it away… in her handbag… so she could read it later.

A/N this chapter has been problem ridden, it's been written and scrapped and rewritten and scrapped over and over but I've just succumbed to the fact that in order to foreshadow a lot of stuff for later I've had to sacrifice a bit of fun in this chapter... also my email bit isn't quite working as every time I tried to post my fake email ff took it out in edit document... so I had to get creative with hash tags!


	9. 8: Jean Claude and The Dam Part 1

8: Jean Claude and The Dam Part 1

Hermione lay luxuriantly on her saggy leather sofa and flicked through her Witch Weekly, wiggling her toes lazily and enjoying her 'forced' time off best she could. Her ancient and large cat Crookshanks wound slowly around the coffee table purring contentedly as the carved legs scratched him in all the right places. Hermione lifted her large clunky mug and took a sip of scorching hot coffee as she flicked to her favourite page, she would never tell a soul this but Pansy Parkinson's weekly columns were her secret sinful pleasure. Full of snide, well worded bitch slaps and juicy gossip that made Hermione wish they'd at least been able to share a bitch in the girl's toilets. Judging by her writing Hermione knew that had circumstances been different, they'd have probably been friends of sorts… Hermione began reading.

_Ladies of the wizarding world and no doubt some gents too, brace yourself, something utterly tantalising and filthy has exploded all over the Muggle world, it's a New York times best seller, it's made Millions and here's the stinker… it's written by a witch! 50 Shades of Silver is the first in an erotic trilogy written by none other than Lavender Brown, former girlfriend of Golden Trio Ginger Ronald Weasley._

_While miss Brown believed she was being sneaky by writing under the Alias Twinkles Cockfoster she failed to realise that ones pornstar name is very easy to decipher especially when said alias maker spent a whole year writing Twinkles Cockfoster on her pencil-case during potions._

_The Story gets juicier though, prepare yourselves children… this is shocking… Miss Brown in perhaps a lack of original thought has used some familiar names in her little thwap fic, the heroine of this tale is a bushy haired, brave, bookworm by the name of Hermione Granger and the throbbing member she's pumping? Well that's non other than Draco Silver, a blonde, roguish, rich boy with a shady past… remind you of anyone ladies? No? not even our bachelor of the year, bad boy done good, made his wealth back, has a reportedly sizable… property? Now you're getting it, Little Miss Brown has gone and created porn about the two Darlings of the Ministry, Hermione Granger and Draco Malfoy. I shot an owl over to my old buddy Draco Malfoy asking him if there was any truth to the book, he responded "What I and Miss Granger do in our personal time is our business; we run our department efficiently and with diligence… write about that Pans." Well that doesn't sound like a denial to me peeps, whether or not 50 shades makes it's way into the wizarding world is yet to be seen… what I can tell you is Miss Brown better have a good lawyer, because I hear Hermione Granger is going to sue her ass, and more power to her._

Hermione slammed the thick glossy magazine shut, she didn't even to bother reading Pansy's latest piece on the messy affair between Ron Weasley and some French woman who keyed his broom, her chest tightened and released sporadically, he had all but confirmed the nonsense in that book… she was going to punch him… on the penis… hard. With a flick of her wand, her snugly woollen Weasley jumper was now replaced with an austere grey skirt and crisp white shirt, buttoned almost to the chin. her day off could wait; she was now on a mission to deny the world any further Malfoy heirs… using her fist.

* * *

Draco twiddled his thumbs as he sat nervously outside the minister's office, he knew what this was about, Hermione had started her first day of a forced two weeks leave and he knew he was in for the same treatment. Molly, sitting behind a large desk knitting, eyed him warily, he tried to smile.

"You and Hermione seem to get on?" she stated or asked, he wasn't sure.

"Yes, we work well together." He said with an overly friendly tone, everyone at the ministry knew that Arthur may be the head but Molly was the neck that turned him.

"More than that though, you've become friends haven't you?" she pressed further.

"Yes ma'am, she's… she's my best friend." He didn't know why he'd been so candid; he suspected Mrs Weasley had the power to make you tell the truth. Perhaps when you had that many children the world threw you a bone and gave you super veritas powers.

"mmm… yes, she is isn't she." Molly's knitting needles clacked a little louder and Draco worried that perhaps the minister's wife was annoyed at him for steeling her son's friend.

"I think it's nice." Molly said as green wool flew frantically from needle to needle.

"Oh." Was all Draco could muster.

"She needs a man in her life and you're a good man Draco" he swallowed hard; he didn't know what to say.

"I remember when you were a little boy, seeing you at the ministry with your dad. I always had an overwhelming desire to hug you; I always thought you never got enough hugs." She smiled wistfully at her super speed knitting which was now forming a jumper.

"You weren't wrong Mrs Weasley." Draco responded looking at his feet.

"I know son, it must've been hard for you to help the order, going against your parents and everything… dear me… you were very brave." She smiled at him, a proper beaming smile.

"not really, I was just scared and didn't know what else to do..." he paused for a second debating whether or not to share more but Mrs Weasley's twinkling eyes seemed to encourage his heart to pour "I was horrible to your family you know, I said awful things… but really… it was mainly jealousy. I had all the toys and trinkets in the world and there was Ron wearing hand-me-downs and he was a million times happier than me, I hated him for that. I'm sorry." He hung his head, he hadn't apologised for the past in a while, and it was hard to deal with the shame.

"Oh pish posh, children say awful things it's what they do… you should've heard the things my lot sad about you! And to be honest look at you now, a valuable member of the ministry and best friends with Hermione, do you think little Malfoy could have ever imagined that?" She smiled and began knitting the arms.

"no." he said honestly.

"Like I said Hermione needs a man in her life preferably one who realises she's a woman!" Molly gave a knowing wink and Malfoy felt his ears burn.

"I could have thumped Ron the way he treated her, like she was one of the blokes… no… you definitely know she's a girl don't you Draco?" Molly smiled mischievously and Malfoy looked around him hoping for some sort of saving grace to appear, and it did in the form of Arthur who beckoned him into the office, Draco almost sprinted out of the waiting room.

"Hope Molly wasn't chewing your ear?" Arthur asked indicating a seat for Draco to sit in.

"No sir, we were just chatting." Draco answered quietly and with that Arthur closed the door giving them some privacy.

Hermione stormed into the minister's waiting room and looked around frantically; she was just in time to catch the minister's door closing and an engrossed Molly knitting at the speed of light.

"What's the matter dear?" Molly asked not looking up from her knitting.

"Where is Malfoy? I'm going to punch him in the p…" she stopped, she didn't know how comfortable she felt saying the word Penis in front of Molly.

"In the what dear?" Molly smiled.

"Never mind."

"Is this about the article in WW?" Molly asked, eyeing her almost daughter knowingly.

"he made it seem like we're… you know… doing stuff." Hermione moaned, sounding like a teenager again.

"what kind of stuff dear?" Molly asked feigning naïvety.

"you know… adult stuff." Hermione really didn't want to talk about sex with Mrs Weasley, given that she'd had sex with one of Mrs Weasley's sons.

"Well are you?" Molly asked finishing one arm in record time before moving on to another.

"No! Of course not!" Hermione protested throwing her hands in the air. "We're professional and no… just no!" Hermione sighed and slumped into a chair.

"Everyone will think…" Hermione was interrupted.

"What? Everyone will think what? That you're an adult? That you've got a hot lover? What?" Molly giggled a little as she fussed over a dropped stitch.

"Mrs Weasley!" Hermione gasped, raising her hand to her mouth.

"Oh come now Hermione, I've caught you kissing enough of my sons…" Molly was interrupted.

"only 2!" Hermione protested.

"Three, let's not forget Christmas four years ago." Molly reminded, as her knitting needles clacked in time to Hermione's racing pulse.

"That was not reciprocated, Percy was drunk and handsy!" Hermione countered blushing. Before Molly could continue, Arthur's door opened and the minister appeared with a disgruntled looking Malfoy on his heels.

On seeing Hermione Arthur snapped slightly: "For goodness sakes Hermione, it's been 3 hours! Can't you stay away from work for longer than 3 flipping hours? I've just had to fight tooth and nail with your colleague here to get him to take the 'Required' fortnight break! The department will be fine running at half mast for two weeks… now please, both of you… go do something, enjoy yourselves, go on Holiday!"

"Together perhaps." Molly interjected.

"I don't care if you go together or alone, I just don't want to see you in this ministry for another two weeks, do you hear me missy?" Arthur wagged a finger "and you too Mr Malfoy, I mean it… there'll be consequences."

"you're not going to fire us are you?" Hermione asked biting her lower lip.

"of course he wont dear." Molly said looking at her husband sternly.

"No… but I will put you back on the guided tour." Arthur threatened, that was enough for both, they turned on their heels and were about to leave when…

"Draco dear!" Mrs Weasley called, she tied off the end of her knitted masterpiece and handed it to Draco.

"What's this?" he asked perplexed.

"A Weasley jumper, all the kids have one, thought it was about time you had one too." Molly smiled and patted his arm.

"It's…" Draco, to his own shock, found himself lost for words, and though he would admit it to no one, he was slightly choked up.

"It's a wearable hug." Molly said and before Draco knew what was happening she had wrapped her arms around him and embraced him. For a minute he felt like all the guilt and shame he carried about in the back of his head was being squeezed from his body like puss from a boil.

"Thank you Mrs Weasley." He said sincerely.

"I hope to see you wearing it when you come to the Burrow for Christmas dinner?" Molly smiled and patted his cheek.

"Ok Mrs Weasley, I'll see you for Christmas dinner… in four months." He smiled and pecked her lightly on the cheek to which she giggle and patted his hair.

* * *

"You got a Weasley jumper!" Hermione gushed as they sat in the American themed diner and wine bar in the heart of Soho eating a burger. Draco grinned and patted the bag beside him protectively.

"So what were you doing in the ministry anyway?" Malfoy asked taking a sip of the large strawberry milkshake before him.

"I came to punch you in the penis." She smiled angelically.

"I take it you read Pansy's article then?" he didn't need a response, he could tell by her one raised eyebrow that yes she had and that yes she was still pretty peeved, though their conversation could not continue on the subject as a loud screech like a seagull being punched erupted from the doorway of Ed's "over priced" diner.

"O.M.G… G-Dogg is that you? Fucking hell Hermione I've been trying to get a hold of you for a week! Why don't you answer your fucking phone?" a slim tanned woman in her mid 20's, wearing tight jeans, a leather jacket and big shades ran towards the couple, her long black hair tied up in a messy bun.

"G-dogg?" Draco asked quietly.

T.B.C

**A/N: firstly a massive thanks to those of you who have reviewed, I appreciate it greatly… secondly I'd like to apologise for my over use of ellipses it's my favourite type of punctuation and I can't change that even though it's apparently one of the more slutty ways to end a sentence! Thirdly, well this chapter has proven to be massively long so I'm breaking it down into parts as I've done before! This piece "Jean Claude & the dam" does contain references to drug use, specifically in the next part as Draco and Hermione head off to Holland so please if you find that sort of thing offensive or upsetting, well don't say you weren't warned. Everyone's entitled to their own opinion, I spent a great deal of my late teens and early twenties with my friends in Amsterdam so obviously it doesn't upset me in the slightest… but I understand some of you folk are law abiding and to be honest I don't get why what other people do offend you but some people get offended (and just because your offended doesn't make you right) so… I have nothing else to say apart from I hope you enjoyed this part and I look forward to posting part two (and a possible part three) in the next few days.**

**Much love**

**Kicks**

**x**


	10. 8: Jean Claude and The Dam Part 2

"O.M.G… G-Dogg is that you? Fucking hell Hermione I've been trying to get a hold of you for weeks! Why don't you answer your fucking phone?" a slim tanned woman in her mid 20's, wearing tight jeans, a leather jacket and big shades ran towards the couple, her long black hair tied up in a messy bun.

"G-dogg?" Draco asked quietly.

"she's a muggle." Was all Hermione could shoot at him before she had to stand to greet the woman.

"Miss, this is a family place can you keep your swearing to a minimum?" a man dressed like a busboy from the 50's asked the leather clad and loud woman who was making her way to Hermione.

"This is Soho man… do you see any families in here? No… just a bunch of coked up journalists and some angry eastern European hookers, go fetch me a G&T and pray I never review this dive." The woman gave the busboy a toothy grin before shoving a £20 note in his hand "and Keep the change sweetie." She smiled and turned back to Hermione and Draco.

"I called your mother she said you were busy at work… I called you and all I got was the answer phone! Where the fuck have you been G?" the girl asked as she plonked herself beside Hermione.

"Draco this is my oldest friend Jamie." Hermione introduced her "And Jamie this is my colleague and friend Draco." Jamie stretched a ring covered hand over to Draco who shook it politely.

"Draco… Draco… that rings a bell… wait is this not the super popular guy who picked on you at school?" Jamie asked suspiciously, not letting go of Draco's hand.

"Em…" Hermione stalled.

"yep, that was me… I was pretty much a douche as a teenager but I promise I'm trying to make up for it." Draco smiled winningly and managed to extricate his hand from Jamie's

"You better be boy, I know people who'll shoot you for the price of a box of eggs." Jamie smiled and sat back with a daring wink.

"So… what you been up to Jammy-J?" Hermione asked nudging Jamie playfully in the ribs.

"I can't talk to you when you're all buttoned up like that, you look like a fucking school teacher, get Heidi and Audrina out or I'll tell the hot Jock about your poems…" Before Jamie could finish her sentence, Hermione had unbuttoned her blouse a little so the slightest peak of the two, symmetrical curves of her breasts clashing together were visible.

"She is super easy to blackmail! Doesn't she have lovely boobs Draco?" Jamie grinned, stole one of Draco's fries and winked at him again.

"what poems?" Draco asked smirking widely at Hermione; at that moment the waiter brought over the G&T

"do you know what…" Jamie read the man's name tag "… Chip…Why don't you fetch us a bottle of Dom and start me a tab!" she handed the waiter her black credit card and looked back at her companions.

"I hope you two aren't going anywhere… because we are getting toasty!" She raised her G&T to Draco who awkwardly clinked it with his large milkshake glass. "You're not allowed to Say no G! You owe me this for months of neglect and being a bad friend, now that I've found you and I'm keeping you and getting you pissed!" Jamie kissed the top of Hermione's head and threw an arm around her. "She's great when she's drunk!" Jamie said to Draco who nodded in agreement.

"You were going to tell us what you've been up to?" Hermione tried to get her friend back on track.

"Well… as you know I've been living a totally amazing rock and roll life style. I'm a journalist for rolling stone" Jamie beamed, judging by Hermione's face Draco knew this was a muggle thing "Awesome!" was all he could muster. "I need to pop to the rest room, please excuse me." He said and made off to the toilet hoping to Google this Jamie and the Rolling Stone so he didn't feel like such an idiot.

"He's hotter than you said!" Jamie sighed as her eyes followed Draco's retreating butt.

"No he's not." Hermione said as she accepted the glass of champagne now being passed to her by Chip the waiter.

"Does he know how much of a crush you had on him at school?" Jamie asked giggling.

"No I didn't!" Hermione protested.

"Oh please… he was the hot Jock who pulled your pigtails and you were the geek who wanted to change him… I know you G, I'm your bestie and I know how many times you watched that Freddie Prinze Jr film … I mean look at him, who wouldn't… he's a babe!" Jamie downed the last of her G&T before moving on to the flute of champagne sitting before her.

"So… what's going on at work?" Jamie asked her friend, knowing she'd be as vague as ever.

"Nothing much, me and Draco have been forced to take a two week holiday which sucks." Hermione sighed tipping the fizzy nectar down her throat; Jamie smiled to herself slyly before picking up her bleeping phone.

"Hello… Baby… Meet me" She was speaking slow, clear and loud "nos vemos en la weird 50's diner place en la Soho baby… no." she covered the mouth piece and turned to Hermione "how do you say "happy days" in Spanish?" Hermione frowned "días felices I think" she said trying to remember basic Spanish, Jamie uncovered the mouth piece and began again loudly "VEMOS… en la… DIAS FEliCES… baby…" she stopped for a minute listening to the person on the other side of the call and then smiled excitedly. "Si… Si… kisses" she kissed the mouth piece and turned excitedly to Hermione "Jean Claude is coming!"

"Is he your boyfriend?" Hermione grinned already feeling a little tipsy.

"Yes… he's in the band Princes of Neon… you know… number one hit "Sex in flames?", totally cool… doesn't speak English very well? I'm judging by your blank expression Hermione that yet again you've completely lost touch with what's going on in the world? His band is huge, he plays drums… nope... Nothing." Hermione giggled at her friend, who was always annoyed at her lack of music knowledge.

"Do they do any Coldplay covers?" Hermione snorted knowing how much this would annoy Jamie.

"Don't say that to him." Jamie said seriously.

"Why, does he hate them?" Hermione asked lazily picking fries from Malfoy's plate.

"No he fucking loves them, seriously… you'd think being all cool and stuff would make you immune to Coldplay but no… he loves them." She sighed dramatically and Hermione threw a consoling arm around her. Just then the door to the Happy Days-esque diner flew open and an incredibly handsome tanned man entered, his eyes searching the room dramatically before falling on Jamie, he spread his arms wide and ran towards her almost slapping a fidgety man sitting with an open laptop.

"BABY" he cried as Jamie stood and made her way to him in an equally dramatic fashion.

"I miss you so bad." He cooed as he reached her, kissing her deeply and dipping her slightly. The two of them slid into Draco's empty side of the booth and smiled at Hermione, loved up and eager to express.

"Hi I'm Hermione Granger." Hermione grinned and stretched out a hand to the incredibly swarthy, dashing and sexy man in front of her. He was practically wearing the same clothes as Jamie, tight jeans, a white t-shirt and a leather jacket; they seemed intertwined, wrapped in each other. He took her hand and looked at her for a good few seconds. "G-dogg? You crazy wild party child?" He sniggered but stopped and looked at her closely again.

"Who Hermione? Not a chance." Draco had returned, a triumphant smile on his face… he'd obviously had a good muggle research session in the bathroom.

"I'm Draco Malfoy" He smiled at Jean Claude "You must be Jean Claude, drummer from Madrid and the hottest thing in rock and roll!" Jean Claude's smile seemed a little forced but he took Draco's hand shook it firmly. "I Jean Claude." He said simply.

"He doesn't speak much English." Hermione smiled up at Draco who was now sliding into the seat beside her. He rested one arm along the top of the booth, millimetres above her shoulders.

Jamie ordered more drinks, shots of something spicy and another bottle of champagne. The drink and the company seemed to relax Hermione who leaned lazily against Draco as she listened to her friend tell of her and Jean Claude's meeting, while said Spanish drummer nibbled on her ear lobe and whispered sweet nothings. The conversation meandered to the past and Hermione and Jamie's friendship.

"God I can't believe you're such a suit now!" Jamie erupted laughing.

"I'm not… well I am… but it really was inevitable." Hermione chuckled into her fourth glass of champagne.

"Draco, I swear the girl you see before you is not the girl I knew!" Jamie stated as Jean sniffed her hair.

"Yea I heard her being referred to as a wild child earlier did I not?" Draco squeezed Hermione's shoulder lightly.

"She was nuts!" Jamie spouted dramatically.

"I was not!" Hermione leaned across the table poking her friend in the chest.

"This one time, after she'd finished school… she was in a real funk… looked like she hadn't eaten in a year, she was real jumpy… no doubt overworked herself with your weird boarding school exams or something." Jamie said lightly, having had no idea why her friend was a wreck. Draco did, he knew exactly why poor 18 year old Hermione had been so shaken, why she looked gaunt, why she went a little harsh and rough around the edges. He squeezed her shoulder again, in reassurance and in apology. To his shock she raised her own hand and patted his chest lightly, she was reassuring him he pulled her into him a little, instinct and alcohol demanding it… she did not resist.

"Anyway, I hadn't heard from her in months, I hear her parents moved abroad as part of some reality show, then out of the blue I see her moping about and I say "Yo Hermione let's go get fucked up" 'cause she looked like she needed it…. And she smiles and she's all like… "fuck it… lets get fucked up." We bought a massive bag of weed and hid out in my brothers apartment for a week, G-Dogg here barely slept the entire time, she was a party animal! My brother was in this band, and G-dogg gets up on stage with them… raps like she's possessed by the ghost of Biggie Smalls then flashes her tits at the entire crowd… She's a legend in the "Goat and Hound"." Jamie finished her tale with a grin at Hermione who had now buried her face in her hands, Draco's laugh echoed around the room and the other patrons looked at the loud group in irritation.

"Chip! Get us another bottle of Dom!" Cried Jamie to a beaming Chip who knew how much the champagne was marked up, and obliged the snappy woman happily.

Jamie and Jean Claude started sucking face frantically while they waited for the next round of drinks, Draco grabbed the opportunity to quietly quiz his colleague.

"I'm only understanding like half of what your friend is saying… why would you buy a bag of weeds and who or what's a Biggie Small?" He whispered quickly.

"Biggie Smalls was a rapper like a muggle singer type person and weed… well weed is cannabis." Hermione blushed.

"I thought only old wizards with pipes touched that stuff." He snorted quietly.

"teenage Muggles too… it's illegal though, smoking weed it's dumb." Jamie seemed to catch on to the end of Hermione's conversation.

"this coming from fucking Dazed and Confused over here!" she exclaimed holding back Jean Claude's eager kisses. "Listen, G-Dogg toked with the best of them… she was like cheech and chong rolled into one."

"For a few months… maybe more, then I got over it!" Hermione reasoned.

"few months… more like a year and you didn't get over it… you went to work for the man!" Jamie was now pouring out more champagne. Hermione laughed at nothing and Draco joined in, more time passed, more stories were shared and then Jamie and Jean Claude started eating each others faces again leaving Draco and Hermione giggling at them now, both most definitely "toasty".

Jamie pulled away from her lover and looked at Hermione wistfully

"you two make a cute couple." Jamie eyed them both while Jean Claude turned his attention to his drink.

"We're not a couple." Hermione protested giggling.

"well you should be, there's chemistry there." Jamie grinned.  
"you are sexy fire." Jean Claude tried to add helpfully, " I need loo." He concluded and stood, Draco and Hermione tried to ignore the fact that Jamie was joining him on his jaunt to the bathroom.

"Would it be in breach of law to cast a quick silencing charm on the bathroom?" Hermione giggled, her mouth closer to Draco's ear than was really necessary.

"it would be a breach of law not to." He chuckled back, and cast the charm from under the table.

"Quite the wild card aren't you?" he turned to face Hermione, locking her into the window seat at the booth, she sobered a little much to his chagrin "I wasn't trying to make fun of you." He added a pleading in his voice.

Hermione clicked her tongue pensively "I know that, it's just a little weird sharing some stuff…"

"You know, I told Mrs Weasley you were my best friend today? That means you need to share this stuff with me." Draco reasoned flicking a piece of corn at Hermione who was staring out of the window.

Hermione sighed "everyone assumes that I was this one dimensional girl; that my character or something was set in stone like in that stupid 50 shades book, I studied and worked and defeated dark overlords and that's it…that's all they wrote… but I'm an onion Draco!" she stated emphatically.

"You stink and make people cry?" Draco asked with a lop sided smirk.

"I'm layered, I have many fucking layers!" Hermione took a long draft from her flute.

"I know that." Draco said trying to calm her as she downed another glass.

"You see at school I worked hard and then I had to go off with Harry and defeat Voldemort, but in the summer I was allowed to go back to Richmond and after school, after the war I went back a lot more… nobody there had a clue who I was or what I'd done. I was just geeky Hermione. Jamie and I were next door neighbours, she was this bad girl who smoked pot and hung about with older dudes and she liked me… not so she could copy my homework or get in with Harry and Ron she just liked me for me. She taught me how to be a rebel and let off steam… you know… party and stuff. I needed a laugh and an escape, I was lucky I had an escape you know, lots of kids at Hogwarts didn't have the Muggle world to get lost in… I was really really lucky." Hermione looked wistfully at her hands, a small sad smile playing on her features.

"Well who am I to stand in the way of a party animal, here." He refilled her glass and his own.

"Nobody else really knows…" Hermione said a hint of shame in her voice.

"Knows what? For maybe 13 months of your life you were a little reckless and behaved like a teenager? Come on now Granger, this is the Slytherin bad boy your talking to, when you were still in pigtails I was taking venom shots and snorting pixie dust off a socialite's butt crack." Hermione chuckled at the visual and took a long draft of champagne almost emptying her full glass.

"Top me up." She gasped as the bubbles scratched her throat.

"Oh G-doggs got her drink on!" Jamie said sliding back into her seat, her hair mussed and her top askew, Jean Claude grinning, sat beside her his face smeared with lipstick stains, all four of them continued to drink well into the evening, their faces flushing and words slurring.

"You promised me G-dogg… you promised me we'd go." Jamie slurred, slumping across the table to grab Hermione by the shoulders.

"We will go…" Hermione sighed dreamily back to her friend.

"Iets go then, let's go now!" Jamie exclaimed… and then they were in a car and then they were… and that's when everything went blurry…

Hermione sat bolt upright in the unfamiliar bed in which she was now lying, there was a topless man beside her stretched out on his stomach his platinum blonde hair sticking with sweat to the nape of his neck. She wretched a little, the champagne and vodka from the night before making her stomach swim. She looked down at herself and saw with a mixture of horror and relief that while she was only in her shirt and knickers… she was still in her knickers and that was a silver lining. She had to find her bag, she had to find her wand… She swung her legs off the bed and felt another jolt of relief when her foot landed _in_ her missing bag, she retrieved her wand and cast a charm to cure her hangover… she immediately felt the nausea fade and the headache lift.

"do me." Mumbled Draco, his voice muffled by the pillow his face was currently buried in.

"Excuse me?"

"de-hangover me… ugh… I feel like shit." He rolled over peaking at her through squinting eyes.

She pointed her wand at him and obliged.

"I sincerely hope you're about to tell me where we are." Hermione stated in a matter of fact tone, giving Draco no time to really wake up.

"You don't remember anything?" he asked scratching his head lazily.

"I remember drinking… drinking a lot and then it all kind of goes blank." She said twiddling her hair deep in thought, her knees pulled to her chin, her feet tapping lightly on the bed spread, completely unaware or unbothered that her underwear was on display. Draco tried not to look but failed.

"My nights pretty blank too… Though I'm relatively sure nothing untoward happened" He grinned.

"Oh and how's that?" she asked him an eyebrow raised.

"because Granger… if I'd had my way with you… well I doubt you or I'd forget it." He nudged her trying to sound playful but sounding sexier than he'd intended.

"I guess" she said, her tone non comitial, still feeling hazy from a night of heavy drinking and god knows what else.

"What's the last thing you remember Granger?"

"It's weird but… I remember explaining to you what an airport was, and… then you screaming your head off." She laughed a little at the blurred memory forming in her champagne soaked cranium.

"Ah!" he sat up the covers slipping down his torso to reveal the waistband of his shorts, Hermione couldn't help but feel relieved "you convinced me to get on an Air o bane…" he said remembering the absolute terror he'd felt when Hermione had informed him that there was no magic holding the vehicle up.

"Oh my god… I remember where we are… I remember getting off the plane and heading here, I can't believe how fucking drunk I got… I'm an idiot!" She buried her burning face in her hands.

"Where are we then?" Draco asked "and you're not an idiot."

"we're in Amsterdam… I am such an idiot, why can't I handle my drink? Why is it as soon as I'm just a little bit drunk I loose my ability to make reasonable decisions… I'm not just a follower when I'm pissed Draco I'm a fucking rabble rouser!" she roared dramatically pressing her palms into her face, Draco leaned over and pried her hands away from her now blotchy face. "You listen here Miss Prim and Proper, as an actual trouble maker I can inform you that your mild transgressions are nothing but a refreshing insight into the many layered person who is Hermione Granger. You're a young woman and by rights are entitled to a bit of fun…"

"Bit of fun?" she responded angrily sitting up "I forged passports for me and you, I transfigured my shoes into fake muggle documents… that's illegal, I think I can be done for treason or something!" she heard her own voice and dropped her head trying to mask the giggle that was creeping up her throat, as annoyed as she was at her own reckless behaviour she couldn't help but chuckle at her drunk ingenuity.

"your mad." He said plainly patting her back.

"Come on partner, we should get ready and get home." She sighed, turning and standing giving Draco a wonderful glimpse at her barely covered buttocks… his eyes caught on four little bruises on her thigh and his mind jumped but he pushed it back down.

"should we do a memory charm? Try and remember everything?" she asked pulling on her skirt and tucking her shirt in?

"Probably not… probably just be embarrassing remembering how drunk we were." He said quickly, his subconscious deftly holding shut the door on the memories already threatening to pour from the hidden parts of his brain.

"probably right" she said with a grin, "I'm going to leave a note for Jamie… I think she and Jean Claude are a little pre occupied." She indicated her head towards the Low rhythmic banging coming from upstairs… she got a weird sense of déjà vu before shaking it away and heading to where she assumed the living room was in this chrome and white flat owned b the drummer of some band who's name she'd forgotten already.

Draco sat alone raking his fingers through his hair, years of his fathers 'training' left him with a sense for certain things, and certain things were not feeling right… he couldn't put his finger on it but he knew something had happened… something niggled at the back of his brain.

It was still niggling when Hermione had apparated them back to her apartment, his distraction even lead him into accepting an invite to Harry Potter's birthday later that week… something… something was hiding in the back of his mind teasing him… eventually when tucked up, alone, in his own bed he decided to let it go… whatever it was it couldn't be that important… could it?

_SOME TIME IN THE NEAR FUTURE:_

_"if it's not messy your not doing it right!" Hermione chuckled as they exited her office and she turned to lock the door… George erupted from the office he and Sparks shared, a look of triumph on his face as he approached his bosses "I've only gone and done it!" he declared, holding aloft a small vial._

_"if this has something to do with cats George I'm going to dock your pay." Hermione said, cutting short the chat she had been having with Draco._

_"No… It's the memory retriever!" he smiled happily at his bosses expecting a cheer or a hug at least. Hermione obliged and let out a cheer of congratulations before patting George fondly on the cheek, Draco however remained still, and that thing that had been hovering in his brain leapt a little, and reminded him it was there._

_"have you run the extensive testing you were asked to?" Draco asked sternly taking the bottle from George._

_"Well… I've successfully tested nearly everyone in the office now … except you two." George smiled._

_"ooh I'll give it a go!" Hermione beamed never wanting to seem like less than a team player and before he could stop her she'd taken the small vial and was drinking it down… a lump formed in Draco's throat, he didn't know why…_

_George groaned "Hermione… I have to alter your memory first otherwise there's no..." Hermione hadn't stayed to hear the end of Georges telling off, she had gone very white and some how red all at the one time before spinning on her heel and marching to her office…_

_TBC… but not yet…sometime in the near future…_

**_A/n _sorry for the delay, I got really stuck on this chapter... in case it was confusing... the bit in italics in the end wont come up for another few chapters :-)**


	11. 9: Birthday Wishes and Double D's

9: Birthday Wishes and Double D's

The Burrow gleamed in the morning sunlight, Arthur might be the minister for magic but no amount of money or station could drag him away from his home, his lovely hand-me-down, DIY, rickety home. The place his children had grown up and the place, he hoped, his grandchildren would raise their children. It may have still been the burrow but the perks of office had allowed expansion and redecoration so while the outside still looked like something from a Grimm's fairy tale, the inside was country house chic, they still had bits and bobs from the old days but they now owned sofa's that didn't sag in the middle, and beds that didn't creak all night long and Molly had been given the kitchen of her dreams... yes the Burrow was certainly a castle.

Hermione was now sitting in that castle next to her colleague and professed new bff Draco Malfoy, she had worried that things would be awkward given that she had woken up in bed next to him in hardly any clothes, but things seemed fine. He was jovial, flirting a little with Mrs Weasley as she bustled around laying out bowls of crisps and dips for Harry's birthday, Molly tittered and raised an eyebrow conspiratorially when she caught Malfoy tucking a piece of stray hair back behind Hermione's ear. They were the first two guests and had arrived at nearly the same time, Molly had complimented Hermione on her summer dress before looking sharply at Draco "Doesn't she look lovely Malfoy?" she had asked holding back a slight giggle "She always looks lovely Mrs Weasley." Malfoy had responded leading Hermione through to the sitting room.

They were deep in conversation about an article soon to be published on singularities and magic, close together on a small two person sofa, faces almost touching when the door to the sitting room swung open dramatically.

"You've got to be fucking kidding me!" Ron hollered eyeing the pair like he'd walked in on them fucking on his mother's new Laura Ashley rug.

"O.M.G are you Draco Malfoy?" the stick insect girl asked, her eyeballs seemed to tremble in their sockets, she grinned a yellow toothed smile at Draco who moved closer to Hermione.

"It fucking well is, what I want to know is what the ferret is doing in My fucking house!" Ron's tone had not lowered any as he made towards Draco menacingly.

"He was invited, and this is certainly not your house young man!" Mrs Weasley had re-entered carrying drinks for Hermione and Draco.

"You'll have to excuse Ronald, he seems to lack the emotional tools required for MOVING ON with his life." Molly spat looking at her youngest son. Draco stood and accepted the drink from Molly, "Weasley... Ron, look I know we haven't spoken much since school but I'm sorry for any pain I've caused you..." he was interrupted by Molly who was looking at him kindly "Draco love, you've already apologised to all of us enough times, we didn't raise him to make people grovel, now sit down and hand Hermione her drink." Molly directed handing him another glass.

"You've got to be kidding, you're siding with him too... first he beds my ex and now he's wooing my mother?" Ron's words managed to make an already tense situation feel like an awkward-palooza, what shocked Draco more was that Hermione didn't jump to correct him; instead she shook her head and took a sip of her drink eyeing Ron with disdain.

"You haven't introduced your new friend." Hermione said standing and walking towards the blonde, oblivious girl with the shaky eyes.

"There you have it! You didn't deny it... You've been bedding the enemy then?" He said shrilly, looking from Hermione to Draco with rage in his eyes.

"Ronald, you gave up your right to have any say on what I do in my bed when you left me for... how did you put it "pastures greener" was it? Now stop being a rude monster and introduce us to your friend." She smiled kindly at the blonde girl, who smiled back completely unaware that anything was wrong.

"Where's Harry?" Ron bellowed in response before trudging out of the room angrily.

* * *

Harry was not at his party, Harry was sitting in a muggle burger shop looking around nervously. The plastic seat beneath his bum squeaked when he moved and made a bunch of teenagers giggle at him. He took another tentative sip of the scorching coffee before him... He didn't really know what he was doing here, he'd received a weird owl that morning and at first had assumed it was a late birthday message from a "fan" or worse, another naked picture from a "fan" instead it had been a scrawled note in handwriting he half recognised, he pulled it from his inside pocket and read it again;

Dear Harry,

could we meet please, it's important,3pm at Mr Whimpette on Kings rd, I know it's been a while... thanks.

DD

He had only turned up to prove to himself that the letter wasn't from who he thought it was from, he had sent a quick note to Molly letting her know he might be late and jumped over to the nearby burger joint, curiosity gripping him.

The glass door swung open and he looked up expectantly, then looked down again, then looked up a second time... it was him and he wasn't alone. A large muscular man wearing a leather jacket smiled shyly at Harry, there was a small boy with chocolate coloured skin and a mop of curly brown hair holding his hand, a tall dark woman with long braids and a large bust was walking behind him, her face open and smiling.

"Dudley?" Harry asked, smiling at his cousin warmly.

"Harry." was all Dudley said as he embraced his little cousin almost breaking his bones. Harry pushed back all the questions racing through his head and returned the embrace, feeling warmly to the boy who'd tormented him for so long.

"This is my wife Clarissa." Dudley introduced the dark skinned lady beside him beaming with pride

"Hi Clarissa it's nice to meet you, I'm Harry Potter." He made to shake her hand but she grabbed him and embraced him tightly.

"I know who are, I've been told stories about you!" She looked teary eyed.

"You're a…" he didn't know how to put it, perhaps she just meant Dudley had told her about him, but there was that look in her eye, that mixture of gratitude and awe that wizards and witches got when they met him.

"I'm a squib, my mother was a witch and my father was not but she told me all about the magical boy who saved the world… I can't believe you're really here!" She made to hug him again but a small hand tugging her elbow caught her attention.

"This is Jacob Harry Dursley my son" Dudley indicated the little boy who grinned up at Harry "Hello buddy!" Harry leant down and shook the little boys hand "hello Uncle Harry" the little boy said proudly as he'd rehearsed in the car.

Clarissa took the boy to the soft play area to give Dudley and Harry time alone, Harry couldn't help but smile at the muscular man in front of him, his face no longer mean and brutish but warmed by family.

"You called your son Jacob Harry?" Harry smiled questioningly.

"This is the weird part, I didn't, she did… I suppose I should start at the beginning, I've wanted to tell you all this for so long but I was so scared that you'd be mad at me or hate me and I… well I deserve it" Dudley's head dropped sadly and Harry reached out a hand to pat his "you're the only family I've really got Dudley and you know… you were just the product of your mum and dad, I'm sure they did the best with the tools they had"

"Petunia and Vernon are poisonous mate, as soon as you went off to save the world or god knows what I started to see how very very closed minded they were and I moved away and started training, I box now professionally, Heavy weight obviously!" He grinned and Harry indicated for him to continue his tale of how Jacob got his name, Dudley looked lovingly over at his wife and son; "I met her 6 years ago, we were so young and we'd only been seeing each other for a few months and I already knew I loved her, she was working at the gym I trained in and she fell pregnant, I never told her anything about you, not that I'm ashamed mate… it's just… I was worried she'd think I was mental… so I proposed, and took her home to meet mum and dad and they freaked out, turns out old Vernon's a bit racist… I haven't spoken to him since, mum sometimes calls but she's still not happy." Dudley shook his head in sorrow and wonder, how could his parents not see how much he loved his wife and why did it matter what colour her skin was, he'd never understand them.

"So… a few weeks before she's about to give birth we're talking about baby names and I say I like Jacob, it's her dads name and I'm just happy he's taking my surname so then she says she'd like the middle name to reflect her heritage, and I start thinking It'll be something from Uganda but then she says I want his name to be Harry… and I started to get this feeling like I almost knew what she was going to say and I say "Why Harry, Baby?" and she gets all serious and deep and she says "I need to tell you something and I don't want you thinking I'm mad, I want you to know that this is going to sound weird but I can prove everything I'm going to say… My mother was a witch" and I don't know what to say back cause I don't know if she means your kind of witch or if she means you know… just in a cult so I just remain silent and nod and she goes on and she starts telling me about this world, your world, the world I never really knew about and about this baby who saved the world and how he grew up with no parents and went on to save the world again… and she tells me all the shit you went through all the stuff I never really knew, and I start crying… I felt horrible, and I couldn't stop, I couldn't stop crying and she thinks I'm mad at her and then I tell her I know that boy, that the boy who stared down the devil himself is my little cousin, my little cousin who I picked on and made fun of and then I tell her everything about mum and dad and how they made you sleep under the stairs and how I used to break your glasses and she gets mad at me… she's read about me in some biography some guy wrote about you." Harry stops him at this point and looks at him seriously " It's unauthorised, I didn't ask him to write it" Dudley waves his comment aside.

"On the home front it was pretty accurate, I mean I was hellish but she'd met my parents and she'd seen me change and she knew I wasn't that kid any more… so Jacob was born and she was so proud that you were his second cousin, we told him uncle just because it was easier to explain and well in the last couple of years he's started to you know do magic… he made my wallet disappear last week when I wouldn't buy him a transformer." Dudley chuckled " and we get this letter from the Ministry of magic 5 days ago about how they've started a new initiative to integrate muggle born wizards into the magical society and how Jacobs been invited to some magical primary school where he'll learn all the usual stuff like reading and writing but he'd also be mixing with his own kind… Clarissa is over the moon." Harry smiled to himself, that was his initiative, he'd put it forward at a meeting almost a year ago asking the ministry to seek out young witches and wizards and offer the opportunity to experience magical life before Hogwarts but also allowing parents to see what it was all about before their kids got whisked away to some far off school for nine months out of the year.

"I thought, you know, if he's going to live in your world he should at least meet you." Dudley smiled at his little cousin no longer little, Clarissa and Jacob returned to the table, a tray of burgers in hand "I really can't tell you how exciting it is to meet you!" Clarissa expressed as she cuddled up to her husband, Harry removed his wallet from his pocket and opened it, he removed several pictures and handed one to Dudley "That's my wife Ginny and my son James" he said proudly he showed the same picture to Jacob "this is your cousin, he's a little younger than you Jacob so you'll have to look out for him, you think you can do that?" Jacob nodded eagerly mesmerized by the moving image, Dudley found himself welling up, knowing how different his own son would be to him. Harry produced another picture; "this is Teddy he lives with us too, he's my adopted son, he's older and I'll make sure he'll look out for you!" Harry patted the little boys head as he gazed at the pictures.

"It's my birthday party tonight, you're all more than welcome to come, meet the family and have some cake?" Harry asked Dudley hopefully.

"Thanks but we'll have to rain check, maybe get the kids together with a little less pressure… I'm a bit of an emotional wreck and I think I'll probably just start blubbering again." Dudley laughed wiping the tears welling in his eyes hastily.

"No worries, you can owl me or…" Harry took a card from his pocket and handed it to Dudley "or call or email, seriously It's been great catching up and meeting you all… but I really need to be getting to my party or my wife will hex my face off!" he laughed and made to stand, after prolonged goodbyes and hugs all round Harry left the burger joint feeling like he'd received one of the best birthday gifts, more family… and that's all he ever really wanted.

* * *

Ron was still in a rage and Hermione was done, she looked at Draco and nodded her head at the fireplace, "I'm leaving, you can stay if you want but screw this… I'll take Harry out for dinner later or something I'm not hanging around here to be scorned like some scarlet woman." She sighed and headed to the kitchen preparing to say her goodbyes to Molly and the rest of the family who'd arrived in drips and drabs in the past hour.

"I'm heading home, tell Harry I'm sorry but that something came up." She said sadly as she hugged the old woman.

"By something I assume you mean my son." Molly responded returning the hug warmly.

"I'm right here." Ron proclaimed from his seat at the kitchen table, Molly ignored him, his girlfriend continued to smile at Draco.

"Shut up Ron." Ginny snapped giving Hermione a smile and a roll of her eyes as she fed James some mushy looking gunk.

"I shouldn't have come Mrs Weasley" Draco had appeared behind Hermione looking a little sad.

"Nonsense, you were invited, you're Hermione's friend, besides I've grown rather fond of you Draco, now sit down and have something to eat I've made stew… it's Harry's favourite." She indicated two empty seats; Ron quickly put his feet on one of the chairs.

"No we'll be leaving, Ginny floo me later and we'll chat about how your brother's an ass." Hermione smiled, the back door opened and George entered looking a little dopey

"Hey Bosses! Who's an ass? Am I an ass?" he said walking towards Draco and highfiving him.

"YOU TOO?" Ron yelled almost toppling back off his chair.

"Me too what?" George asked looking confused and eating scotch egg.

"have you all gone mad and forgotten who this man is?" Ron bellowed standing from his chair and knocking it over, James screamed at the sudden loud noise and Ginny shot her brother a death glare.

"This man is my co worker and my friend, he said he was sorry a thousand times, he repaid any debts he had to society now stop being such a prat and sit down you're scaring your nephew!" Hermione hissed a shaking finger pointed at her former lover. "come on we're leaving Draco, Molly, Ginny, George, James and Ron's friend, I'm sorry for the drama tell Harry I love him and I'll talk to him soon." Hermione grabbed Draco by the hand and dragged him to the floo before he had time to say a proper goodbye.

Ron followed hot on their heels and grabbed Draco's arm spinning him round "You should know before you get too settled, she's a prude, if your hoping for some explosive night of love making you'll be holding out forever, all you'll get is some awkward missionary followed by her kicking you to death in her sleep" He hissed glaring at Hermione, she felt her cheeks redden and tears well up in her wide eyes, how could a man who had been so close to her be such a dick now? She knew the war had more than just physical casualties and she knew that Ron's emotional scars ran deeper than the rest; he seemed to miss the war almost as if he didn't have a purpose if he wasn't helping Harry defeat Voldemort.

"You have no idea what this woman is capable of Weasley, don't blame her for your short comings…" and with that Draco grabbed Hermione round the waist and apparated them both away from a furious looking Ron and missing a jovial and soon to be pissed off Harry entering the front door.

When they landed in his living room she didn't move away from him, he could feel her tears soaking through his shirt and he held her tightly.

"He's an ass Hermione." He soothed, running a hand up and down her back.

"He used to love me… how can he hate me so much." She choked into his white shirt, transferring some mascara to his lapel.

"He doesn't hate you Hermione, he still loves you and he hates me, why didn't you put him straight? Tell him we're just friends?" he asked pushing her back and holding her at arms length.

"Why should I? I didn't leave him, he left me… said I was boring and he needed to experience life and sow his wild oats and blah blah blah. It makes him so angry that we work together and it makes him even angrier when I'm nice to his dates… I like to piss him off." She smiled a little and wiped her face with the back of her hand.

"Do you still love him?" Draco asked seriously, trying not to look like her answer could crush him.

"Hell no!" she exclaimed almost laughing "He's a pig, I don't even know if I ever properly did… not in that way… when we kissed I wouldn't feel anything and I thought there was something wrong with me, but it just wasn't right I mean when you and I kissed… that one time when I made lady Viagra, there was more chemistry in those seconds than there had been in me and Ron's whole relationship and Draco we're not even in love… how bad is that?" she laughed again and sniffed then pouted a little and sighed "I can't believe how nasty he's become."

Draco was trying not to read too much into what she'd just said but couldn't help the grin that was spreading across his face. "You want a drink?" he asked heading away from her and towards his kitchen.

"Make it a double please!" Hermione called after him "Hey, why didn't you correct Ron?" Hermione asked following him at a distance.

"because I like to see the wound up weasel, it always pissed me off how he treated you… even at school when I was hating you I'd see him snap at you and force you to let him copy your homework and I would think 'mate… you've got a girl there who's getting undeniably hotter every year and you continually over look her and underestimate her' it was mind boggling…" He shook his head and poured her a drink.

"you thought I was hot?" she said mockingly clutching her heart.

"Oh get over yourself bushy, you had boobs before all the other girls and I was 13 you could've had a horn, tusks and a tail and I still would of banged you!" she guffawed at his statement as he handed her the glass.

"Don't you think it's weird that everyone thinks we're a couple?" Hermione asked sipping the fire whiskey.

"Not really" Draco whispered so she couldn't hear and shrugged, she grinned and shrugged, turning back to the living room.

"Let's watch that YouTube video of the kid who freaks out when his world of warcraft account gets cancelled." She called back to him "that always cheers me up"

**A/N: This chapter diverts a little to Harry and his story, I know some of you may find this annoying but It****'****s something I really wanted to write I hope it wasn****'****t too bad. I****'****m not feeling this chapter completely but I wanted to write it and I did my best****…**** I****'****ve been working on scripts for so long that I feel I****'****ve lost my flare for description and I****'****m just focusing on dialogue****…**** any way please do review, I love it when you do, and kicks loves you. x**


	12. 10: Libel Lawyers and Small Victories

10: Libel Lawyers and Small Victories 

_Dear Miss Granger, _

_I am writing to you as you asked to be kept abreast with our current libel case against one Miss Lavender Brown. At present we have put forth our argument about how very close to your own character in both name and mannerism her 'fictional' protagonist is, initially her lawyer was sticking with a one off payment and a gagging order, we however have pointed out that the libel has already been reported by one Miss Pansy Parkinson in witch weekly and has since been picked up by other wizarding news sources. We have since come to the agreement that given the nature of the book, and given the tarnishing quality of the material and the number of sales that you should receive a one off payment of £2,000,000 in muggle money and 15% of all sales in wizarding outlets, as this would be handled by another publisher. If this is to your satisfaction please let me know, however if your willing to hold out for a few months I'm sure I can get them up to 5 million and 30%, I await your orders._

_Yours faithfully_

_Tobias Plumtree_

Hermione grinned and folded the letter up, placing it in her private drawer she retrieved her personal letter headed paper and her favourite biro and began her response;

_Dear Mr Plumtree…_ She was interrupted when a voice spoke from behind her "Tell him you want 3.5 million and 25% this week or you go public" Hermione leapt from her leather chair

"I knew it was a mistake letting you use my lab" she snapped as she clutched at her chest "I swear to god there's nothing worse than a Draco Malfoy sneak attack"

"I can't use my lab, there's a colony of kittens taking up residence in the cupboards, George and Sparks are sorting it… and I don't mean to be sneaky, it's just genetics and these lovely calve skin loafers" Draco drawled dramatically as he pushed her back into her office seat "now write what I said, I'm a Malfoy I'm good at these things." Draco moved round to sit on the chair at the other side of the desk and eyed his co-worker with determination. Hermione huffed, never one to enjoy being told what to do but moved the nib of the pen to the paper.

"I'll never need that much money… I mean I'd be richer than you." Hermione sighed as she nibbled the pen lid, inadvertently drawing Draco's eyes to her lips. He scoffed a little, mainly to shake himself out of the trance her nibbling had caused.

"My dear Hermione, you could ask for five times that and you still wouldn't be as rich as me." He laughed lightly.

"I thought the ministry seized all your assets?"

"The ministry seized all of the British assets, but a few months of digging through family records allowed me to retrieve our sizable overseas wealth, and so… I'm afraid my dear Hermione I will always be richer in wealth"

"If not in wisdom" Hermione added smirking and placing her pen to paper, she stopped and looked up at him again "what do you spend this money on? I mean you've got a little roster in your diary of whose turn it is to pay at lunch… now that I know you're the wizarding Donald Trump that makes you seem a little tight." She grinned as she teased him.

"I give anonymous charitable donations." He responded a little haughtily " and as much as I'd like to lavish you with gifts of sandwiches and chocolates I know that you're an independent woman, I mean when that Bouncy Knowles lady asked that all the "women who independent" throw their hands up at her did you or did you not throw your hands up?" He smirked as Hermione blushed lightly.

"Stop spying on me!" she whined, staring resolutely at her desk.

"Stop dancing about your office with your door open then, we all know that your bottyliciousness could be considered work place harassment" he grinned as he stood and made his way back to her lab. She remained silent and staring at the almost blank parchment before her, 'charitable donations' she thought and her mind swept back 2 months, to a meeting with Arthur and Harry, but not just that, the chat she'd had with Draco before…

_2 months earlier_

"_He's going to tell us it's dead, the project is done…" Hermione sniffed holding back tears for the sake of professionalism, she wiped her nose on the sleave of her purple figure hugging dress and pulled on her small blazer. _

"_Surely you can drum up some funds, I mean these people throw a fundraiser for everything, can't they just do one of them for the future of the wizarding world?" Draco asked as he perched on her desk, his face wrought with concern. _

_"there's just not enough interest, the society people aren't openly against a primary school for young wizards, it just doesn't effect them so they don't care" she sighed and he stood and took her dejected frame in his arms, it would have been awkward had it not felt so right. _

_"I'm sure it'll all work out." He cooed as he rocked her gently. _

_"No it wont" her stern voice came, muffled by his woollen sweater, her little frame stiff with rage. _

_"Yes it will, you'll see, some old coot will donate a fortune and you and Harry's pet project will be a reality." He patted her head soothingly as she pushed gently away from him and straightened herself. "I admire your optimism but I think you're mad." She stated before turning and storming through the halls of the ministry of magic preparing herself for the worse. _

_She had returned twenty minutes later, her face flush with pride and her smile beaming, it was contagious he smiled just as wide as soon as he saw her through his window to the hall, she opened the door to his office with care, closed it gently, placed a silencing charm around the room and then let out an all mighty "Whoop!" followed by a bout of gladiatorial air punching. _

_"I take it, it went well then?" he asked, knowing the answer. _

_"Someone donated this morning; some anonymous angel gave the ministry enough money to run the school for ten years with some change to spare!" she did an odd little happy jig and walked to his cabinet to search for his celebratory cigars and scotch. _

"_Ah… so I was right?" he said standing and pulling the bottle and box from his desk. _

_"Gimme a cigar!" she demanded, her small hand waving at him. _

_"You don't smoke… and also I was right." He said again._

"_I feel like a Boss Malfoy, I triumphed today and would like to express this by drinking scotch and smoking a cigar and pretending I'm in Mad Men… don't ask Draco, it's a muggle thing" she plonked herself on the seat opposite him and kicked off her high heels. _

_"ok… and again have you noticed how I was right?" he smirked as he handed her the glass of fine aged scotch and the cigar, she puffed lightly then coughed and stuck out her tongue like a child who's just tasted sprouts for the first time "yuck" she said as she scrunched up her nose "and you were right" she added hastily. Draco imitated her celebratory "Whoop" and fist pump and added "small victories!" they had both laughed and celebrated the anonymous donor…_

Present day:

Hermione's eyes shot up from her parchment, she swivelled in her chair and marched through the back door in her office to her private lab where Draco was currently working on a new spell to banish boggarts, as she entered the lab she thought she saw herself stepping out of the claw foot wardrobe situated in the centre of the room, but the image was gone so quickly she thought it must have been a reflection… she shook her head and quickly turned to Draco who looked pale and nervous.

"It was you wasn't it?" she said, her tone more questioning than accusatory.

"What was?" he asked, really not knowing what she was talking about.

"The donation, the donation for the school Draco… you were the Donor." She said as her brow quirked.

"It's anonymous" he responded turning away from her to sort files and hide his tell tell smirk.

"Why?" was all she could muster.

"For you, that's what best friends are for right?" he turned and gave her a sheepish grin. She was dumb founded, she did the only thing she could think of and marched towards him, threw her arms around him and squeezed him in the tightest embrace she could muster.

"you… I mean if it wasn't for the school I'd be like whoa Malfoy too much… but the school, you've essentially funded a school for Muggle born wizards, I mean why wouldn't you want credit for it Draco it would do wonders for your profile?" she asked still holding him.

"Because…" he stopped, the truth was he was scared that if she found out she'd read too much into it and by read too much into it he meant know the truth "I don't want to completely wipe my bad boy image, that's what wins me the most eligible bachelor award every year" he smirked and she let go of him and gave him a curious look

"You're a bloody enigma Malfoy." She called back as she left the lab and entered her office where a nervous looking George and Sparks stood side by side.

"Yes?" she asked warily.

"We've got a new project we'd like to work on." Sparks said quietly.

"Oh yes?" Hermione sat down at her desk.

"We've been toying with the idea of using extracts of Pensieve liquid in potions as a new super charged memory restorer." Sparks continued, as George stood looking annoyed.

"have you got some preparatory work?" Hermione outstretched her hand knowing fine well that Sparks would, George was a scatty genius but Sparks was a rather clever but very thorough girl… a perfect pair.

"We've actually got all the prep work done, in fact we're pretty much ready to move on the practical application" Sparks smiled slightly

"Look can we do it or can't we?" George groaned already bored with the formalities.

"Go for it, this all looks non explosive… keep me updated" Hermione smiled glancing over the formula before handing the file back to Sparks who hurried out after George.

She looked down at her blank parchment and picked up her blue biro to start writing again

_Dear Mr Plumtree, _

_Inform Miss Brown's Lawyer that I'd like £3,500,000 and 30% of all wizarding sales of her poorly written book to be donated to the Albus Dumbledore Primary School in Diagon Alley, tell them If they don't agree within a week I'm going to both muggle courts and the Wizengamot and I will win._

_Many thanks_

_Hermione Jean Granger _

Draco stood alone in Hermione's lab, he thought he'd locked the door before and she'd walked in so now he propped a chair under the handle, locking the door the good old muggle way. He headed over to his desk and checked his notes, he was working on a spell which was a variation on a cheering charm, it essentially fired raw magical laughter at the Boggart therefore immobilising it without the hassel of transforming it, the spell just needed a few tweaks. He opened the door on the large closset in the centre of the room with a flick of his wand, Hermione stepped out wearing a white shirt and grey skirt her legs and feet bare, she sneered at him with disdain "I hate you." She spat as she walked towards him "you're scum, you're disgusting, you should be dead…" there was a rattle of a door knob and the real Hermione's voice from behind the locked door

"Oi Malfoy, come on, let's go get lunch, my treat" she shouted.

"You think I could love you? I barely even tolerate you…" Boggart Hermione spat as she stepped even closer to the pale and desperate looking Malfoy, he flicked his wand and banished her with his new spell easily.

"Malfoy! Come on, I'll buy you a girly cocktail and pretend it's for me so the bar staff don't laugh at you." The door knob rattled a little harder, with a flick of his wand the chair blocking the door slid across the room and Hermione stumbled through the now unblocked doorframe.

"Jesus Malfoy, you look like you've seen a ghost! Spending too long with Boggarts me thinks." She looked at his pale and clammy face with concern, her head tilted slightly.

"you're probably right." He said quietly as he pulled his lab robe off revealing his grey slacks and white shirt and tie.

"Let's just cut off for the rest of the day eh? I'm feeling like a Boss Malfoy… let's eat steak and smoke cigars!" she clapped her hands happily.

"you hate cigars." He said as he led her out of the lab and through her office.

"I'll eat steaks and you can smoke cigars!" she said happily as she picked up her letter to Mr Plumtree and placed it in her out tray where it vanished almost immediately.

"What was that?" Draco asked.

"letter to my lawyer, I took your advice… well kind of." She grinned, as she felt him do a little dance behind her.

"Small victory?" she asked nonchalantly

"yup"


	13. 11: Laced Cake and Lost Memories

****11: Laced Cake and Lost Memories

"Boss?" a questioning tone came from the urinal beside Draco.

"Yes George?" Draco replied, hiding his exasperation, he didn't like being spoken to whilst he peed.

"Is it against the rules to ask someone from work to be your date for a family thing because your mum says if you don't bring someone you'll get in trouble?" George asked as he urinated freely.

"Em… there's no fraternisation rules in the ministry, I mean if you get knocked back you can't make it awkward for Sparks or keep coming on to her but you should be fine." Draco concluded as he shook his johnson and tucked it back into his pants.

"I didn't say anything about Sparks." George said suspiciously as he too finished his widdle.

"well of course it's Sparks, she's the only other female in the department unless you were planning on asking Hermione?" Draco asked as he washed his hands.

"oh." Was all George could muster "well yeah, it's Sparks, do you think it's a bad idea? I mean it's not a real date it's just so mum'll get off my case." He added.

"well if you really do like her, I wouldn't lead with that George, there's nothing less sexy than a man asking out a woman because his mum's making him." Draco said heading for the door, George remained by the sink.

"Hey Boss?" George started again.

"What is it George?" Draco, now feeling like he'd been in the toilet too long, asked with brittle annoyance tingeing his voice.

"if it's not against the rules why've you never asked Hermione out, I mean Ginny said Hermione's just scared that she'll look unprofessional or something, so if it's not against the rules then why not?" he asked, innocence spread all over what Draco knew was deep down a very devious face. Draco left the rest room George hot on his heels.

"we… it's none of your business, get back to work!" Draco almost screamed at a now giggling George.

"I know everyone thinks I've lost it a bit and I'm mad… But I see it, everyone does, you should ask her… what's the worst thing that can happen?" George grinned, Draco had been getting the feeling of late that Sparks had been bringing out Georges mischievous side, and this was proof.

"Ask who what?" Hermione asked popping out from her office in a short black pinafore and flat black pumps, her white lab robe hanging off her shoulders.

"If you'd take in another one of his panda kittens." Draco answered quickly.

"Pussy." George said in a just audible voice.

"Panda Pussy? Seriously George? I thought I told you no more panda cat breeding, and Panda Pussies sounds like an oriental strip club so we're definitely not calling them that. How's the work on the memory potion coming?" she asked sternly.

"Good, we've been running trials all day, people seem to be able to untangle any modification to their memories almost instantly… though by people I mean me so…" he trailed off dejectedly

"So you're going to run more tests? Because it's not a success until it's been properly tested George." She stated as she turned back in to her office indicating that Draco should follow her.

They sat side by side in companionable silence as they worked through the endless documents and letters to the department which had built up over the past few days, Hermione was reading a letter and smirking, Draco who had been shooting her furtive glances finally caved "what you smiling at?" he asked putting the letter from a woman who wanted them to invent a new treatment for piles down.

"It's from the Flamel institute for achievements in magic, we're getting an award for lady Viagra." She chuckled.

"your kidding?" he joined her in the laugh.

"Nope, they say it's a great medical achievement and that we've aided women not only through their menopause but also made women of all ages and bi-proxy their partners, across the world happy." She snorted with laughter.

"that's… that's a great honour." He said in between laughs.

"You know that's it now, we'll be remembered for sex… no matter what we do our greatest gift to the wizarding world will be an achievable orgasm for women." They both guffawed at this; Hermione clutched her sides and leaned to the left so her forehead was resting on Draco's shoulder. They laughed for a little longer before it died down to shallow pants, they straightened and with a last sideways glance at each other and a final giggle continued through the stacks of paperwork. Occasionally one of them would break the silence with a question like "do you want to go to this ball for feline welfare?" or "have you seen my file on the everlasting sticking tack?" hours passed before they had managed to get through the bulk of the work.

"Lunch?" Draco asked as he stretched in his chair next to Hermione.

"More like dinner." She said looking at her watch and standing, Hermione rummaged through her bag and pulled out her pocket book "I'm going to check who's turn it is to pay, I don't want any arguments this time… I swear you always make me pay!" she snipped as she flicked through the pages she stopped at a dogeared page and looked at the page with a confused smile "Did you do this?" she asked turning the book round to show him the page, Draco stopped at the sight and felt a tingle of recognition but hid it.

"BE BRAVE HERMIONE" was written across a whole page in large letters which looked suspiciously like his hand writing.

"Must've done it after a drink, probably Ginny's idea… she's all about that inner goddess crap." Hermione smiled.

Draco pulled on his coat "Chinese?" he asked.

"Japanese? I could really go a big bowl of ramen." Hermione stated as Draco helped her on with her coat.

"You make such a mess with those big bowls, you always end up covered in chilli and noodles." He sighed in a mocking tone.

"if it's not messy your not doing it right!" Hermione chuckled as they exited her office and she turned to lock the door… George erupted from the office he and Sparks shared, a look of triumph on his face as he approached his bosses "I've only gone and done it!" he declared, holding aloft a small vial.

"if this has something to do with cats George I'm going to dock your pay." Hermione said, cutting short the chat she had been having with Draco.

"No… It's the memory retriever!" he smiled happily at his bosses expecting a cheer or a hug at least. Hermione obliged and let out a cheer of congratulations before patting George fondly on the cheek, Draco however remained still, and that thing that had been hovering in his brain leapt a little, and reminded him it was there.

"Have you run the extensive testing you were asked to?" Draco asked sternly taking the bottle from George.

"Well… I've successfully tested nearly everyone in the office now … except you two." George smiled.

"ooh I'll give it a go!" Hermione beamed never wanting to seem like less than a team player and before he could stop her she'd taken the small vial and was drinking it down… a lump formed in Draco's throat, he didn't know why…

George groaned "Hermione… I have to alter your memory first otherwise there's no..." Hermione hadn't stayed to hear the end of Georges telling off, she had gone very white and somehow red all at the one time before spinning on her heel and marching to her office, slamming and locking the door behind her.

"What exactly does this do?" Draco asked George panic in his voice.

"exactly what I said, if you've got a modified memory it fixes it, it unlocks the real memory lets it play out in your head like it happened, I've tried some dark memory modifications and it's broken them all, but I didn't modify Hermione's memory so… it's not going to do anything, I hope she doesn't think I've failed!"

"Have you got any more?" Draco asked sternly.

"Yeah here." George handed Draco another vial from his pocket, Draco almost immediately ran towards his own office "But I need to modify your memory otherwise…" George was cut short by Draco's office door slamming "and they say they're smart." George sighed as he slumped back to his lab and his Sparks.

Hermione sat on her office desk, her eyes wide, her breath hitched, her skin tingling, having a memory retrieved isn't usually like watching a film, it's like any other memory only a little more fresh, but this was different she felt like she had rewound a part of her brain and she'd seen snippets during the rewind, but not the whole picture. But it also felt like it had hit her all at once. She clutched the edge of her desk, her knuckles white and she closed her eyes daring herself to look at the memory …

Draco sat on his chair, staring at the vial, he knew, he'd known all along that something in his brain wasn't right. Something had happened that night three months ago, something one of them had thought they shouldn't remember. Something bad… or something else… He continued to stare at the vial before snatching it up uncorking it and drinking it down.

_3 Months earlier_

_"You promised me G-dogg… you promised me we'd go." Jamie slurred, slumping across the table to grab Hermione by the shoulders._

_"We will go…" Hermione sighed dreamily back to her friend._

_"Iets go then, let's go now!" Jamie exclaimed… and then they were in a car and then they were at the airport. _

"_Help me get my shoes off!" Hermione had whispered from the back of the car as they parked in the lot of the private airport. _

_"Why?" Draco asked as she swung her legs onto his lap and nodded at her feet. _

_"We may need passports." She responded as if this explained everything, he slipped her shoes from her feet a little slowly and handed them to her, when she'd made to pull her legs from his he'd held on to them with a drunken lopsided smile which she returned. As she worked her magic on the shoe's he'd rubbed absentminded circles on her calf;_

"_Come on you two, the planes ready!" Jamie cried pulling open the back door, at the sight of Hermione sitting holding two passports and Draco holding her legs she'd smirked "plenty of time for that kind of stuff. Where's your shoes dopey?" _

"_Lost 'em" Hermione responded as she scuttled from the car and the intimate moment she'd just shared. Draco, who was still too drunk to care just smirked back at Jamie and followed Hermione to the large metal rocket thing which sat alone in the night. _

_Draco, when inside the small jet had gone with the flow, he had no idea what was going on or why he needed a seat belt, he presumed this was some sort of car or bus, when the engines started and the plane had taxied he had been fine, when the plane had lifted off the ground and had sped into the sky and he had seen the ground fall away from the window the fear of god had entered him. _

"_are you doing this?" he whispered at Hermione who was biting her lip pensively for a whole other reason._

"_Doing what?" Hermione asked shocked out of her thoughts. _

"_Making this thing fly?" he spat. _

"_No… it's an aeroplane, I explained in the car, it's mechanics and technology… it's safer than a broom!" she added with cheerful reassurance. _

"_there's… no… magic?" he squeaked, suddenly very sober and gripping Hermione's hand tightly. _

_Jamie and Jean were at the other end of the jet kissing each other to death and thankfully had not noticed Draco's current freak out._

_"Calm down Draco, it's safe, we're safe." She whispered placing her free hand on his cheek. _

"_WE'RE GOING TO DIE!" Draco screeched before trying to escape from his buckled seat. _

_"He's a bad flyer!" Hermione shouted to their companions at the other end of the plane. _

_"You need to calm down and breathe, we're in this plane now and we're not coming off till the other side, it'll just be an hour or so… we're safe." She whispered as she patted his shoulder, he continued to breathe heavily and clutch Hermione's hand. After half an hour a woman appeared from the cock pit and offered them beverages, Jean and Jamie were already in the toilet gracing everyone's ears with the rhythmic thumping of their constant love making, Hermione asked for two coffees… she had broken the law, she had forged documents, she had gotten into a plane with a rockstar and brought Draco along for the ride…she needed her wits about her. _

_They arrived in Amsterdam at 10pm, Hermione had managed to get Draco to drink some coffee and sober up, he was pale and shaken and she was frazzled by her own recklessness. _

_"I really think we should go back." Hermione had protested. _

_"Nonsense, you'll never get a flight now, just spend the night and you can leave in the morning if you must. Jean's phoned ahead and got the apartment ready!" Jamie slurred happily as she fell into the waiting Limo at the airport. _

"_come on then." Hermione said moodily as she guided a still shocked Draco into the car. _

_They had arrived at what looked like just another tall, old building in the heart of Amsterdam, Hermione was worrying, worrying about everything, about her stupidity, about being away with Draco, about not having clean knickers with her, Draco noticed her white teeth ravishing her bottom lip and placed an arm round her tense shoulders "for just one night don't worry, just have fun… word round town is that you were a wild child Granger, never forget that... I mean you're layered right?" He grinned at her, his face inches from hers, she felt a bubble of reckless abandon rise in her chest but she pushed it down and looked straight ahead. "alright then." Was all she replied before returning to gnawing on her lip. _

_Jamie had been very devious for a drunk woman, when they had entered the lavish chrome covered apartment she had pointed nonchalantly at a room "that's your guys room, hope you don't mind sharing it's just there's nowhere else to put you." And with that she yawned dramatically "well come on lover time for bed… night G-Dogg, have fun!" she smiled and headed up a steep set of stairs Jean Claude in tow "Night Hermione Grange!" Jean Claude cheered happily as he followed his beloved up to their boudoir and no doubt more sex. _

_Hermione and Draco entered the room they would be sleeping in, Hermione felt dread rise up as she saw the solitary king sized bed in the centre of the room "I can sleep on the floor" she said hurriedly "Don't be stupid we're grown ups, we can share a bed." Draco stated as he hopped onto the offending piece of furniture and rolled about testing the mattress. _

_"I'm not great to sleep in a bed with, Ron always said it was a nightmare, said I kicked him too much… but it was just the night terrors I didn't mean it." Hermione said a little feebly, she was still a little tipsy but also on edge from the coffee._

"_Ron Weasley's an idiot, I've said it once and I'll say it again He didn't deserve you." Draco stated as he kicked his shoes off and switched the TV on, he patted the large swathe of bed beside him, "I'm going to change" she said as she headed into the en suite bathroom._

_She stared at herself in the mirror, her hair loose, she had found a large mans shirt and transfigured a towel into some shorts. She wondered if she was showing too much leg, the shorts were short, in fact standing up they were invisible beneath the large shirt but she was if not tired then worn and wanted to be comfortable… and so what if she looked a bit hot, here was an opportunity, an opportunity any other woman would jump at… a very attractive Draco Malfoy was prepared to share a bed with her… but what if he didn't like her, what if he just wanted to sleep with her and then tomorrow things would be weird… what if they couldn't work together any more? She heaved a large sigh and exited the bathroom, Draco tried not to stare at her thighs and the way the shirt hung loosely round her petite frame making her look adorable and… Draco tried not to think any more. _

_"Jamie brought some cake while you were changing, said it was your favourite kind" he said holding up the plate with several squares of iced chocolate cake._

"_Chocolate!" Hermione sang happily, she would not be awkward she promised herself, she sat on the bed and pushed herself up so she was sitting next to Draco and more importantly the sugary delights, she picked up a square and bit with a sigh "yum" she said her mouth full "what we watching?" _

"_Dutch wheel of fortune" Draco responded his mouth now full. _

_The cake was great, the more she ate the more she wanted, she thought that this was the definition of binging and then another thought hit her 'why is time moving so slowly?' and then another sensation, laughter, bubbles of gut tingling laughter were spilling from her lips and Draco, Draco was laughing too, tears were pouring down his face._

_"Why am… I laughing?" he asked in between guffaws. _

"_I think… I think when Jamie said it was my favourite kind… she meant… ha… she meant… laced with drugs." Hermione, chocolate crumbs covering her face rolled onto her side and laughed even harder, they laughed for an inappropriately long time at absolutely nothing and when it died down they were both lying flat staring at the ceiling breathing heavily, the TV now just background noise to their breathing. _

"_Granger?" Draco asked breathily._

"What?" Hermione asked rolling on to her side so she was facing him, she propped her head on her elbow, he turned to return her gaze and couldn't help but smile. She still had crumbs on her nose, he reached out and brushed them off. "what?" Hermione laughed again.

_"since we're here and since I'm drugged and apparently rather free of inhibitions I was wondering if I could ask you something a little personal?" he chuckled slightly and she smiled. _

"_Well since I've also been doped I'll allow it." She said in a legislative tone. _

"_why did you and the weasel end?" he asked looking at her with a rather startling intensity. _

_"there was no chemistry" she paused and wondered if she should continue, the flap in her brain which she called self preservation was swinging freely tonight however so she went on " it was all very by the book… in the bedroom department, he always said it was me but the thing is he never spoke about it and if I tried to suggest anything he'd get all grouchy like I'd questioned his masculinity and then he cheated on me… I never told anyone I didn't want to upset the family but he slept with Lavender Brown of all people and told me it was my fault for being so uptight." She finished with a resigned sniff._

"_What a bastard" Draco snapped, Hermione gave him a lop sided smile "It was ages ago." _

"_Hermione he didn't just betray you, he blamed you, he tried to take your confidence away…" she stopped him _

"_You don't think I know all this? It sucks but it is what it is, I mean my confidence took a knock but it's certainly not gone." Her words were braver than her insides. _

"_But you've not gone out with anyone since then." Draco said quietly. _

_"Yeah but… the opportunity hasn't arisen. I mean it's not like I'm the belle of the ball or anything, I'm Hermione Granger 'she's got nice boobs but she reads too much' or Hermione Granger 'nice butt shame about the hair'." She rolled her eyes and made to roll back onto her back but was stopped by Draco's grip. _

_"See that's the thing, that's the thing that makes you even hotter… there were walls of graffiti dedicated to you in the gents toilets in Hogwarts, every time we go to one of those ministry parties I have to spend half the night 'saving' you from some young diplomat who's trying to ply you with booze and diamonds…" she stopped him with a laugh "Draco that's just superficial stuff, they don't know me enough to like or dislike me… once you get to know me I'm just a bossy know it all… but I'm not down on myself I'm amazing, I'm clever and I'm brave and I'm kick arse and I'm hilarious… I don't need to be you know sexy to validate myself… I'm me and I like it." She smiled at him her brain hazy but her senses tingling. _

"_Well I know you, and I think you're sexy." Draco stated, a little more bold than he had expected… now he knew why all those old wizards were smoking this stuff… he felt liberated and terrified all at once. _

"_you're just saying that…" It was him interrupting her this time, and not with words his lips were pressed against hers, she didn't push away instead she clutched at his shirt and held on tight before letting go suddenly "We can't do this." She panted hastily trying to retreat but finding his arm round her waist pushing her close to him. _

"_we can." He breathed before pecking her lips gently, she groaned. _

_"But I can't, I can't go to work and have things be weird."_

"_They might not be weird, it might be great." He pecked her lips again and she sighed. _

_"But if it's weird, if it's complicated… I mean it's us, me and you, we're always bickering and if you throw sex…" _

"_Not just sex Hermione" he said seriously as he kissed her cheek._

"_Well if you throw whatever this is in the mix, things could get bad, I couldn't bare it if we didn't get on, if we couldn't work together, if we weren't friends any more." Her breath hitched as she started to panic._

"_But all that aside Hermione, you want to don't you, at least acknowledge that whatever is between us you feel it too? Because, if you didn't…" he trailed off. _

"_I do… it terrifies me and I do." She whispered before dislodging herself from him and running to the bathroom. He sat up on the bed feeling wrought, he ran his hands through his hair over and over, at least she admitted it, he thought as he found himself subconsciously chewing his lip. _

_Hermione had been in the toilet for almost twenty minutes, he'd tried to coax her out but had been met with stony silence he was now sitting anxiously on the bed wondering how he could fix this. Hermione stood in front of the mirror again, she'd taken off the shirt and shorts and was standing in just her pants and bra, she had a plan, it was reckless and it was wild but it was a plan and it was going to work. She was going to have her cake and eat it. She made towards the door, she knew it was bad idea, she had every rationalisation and every logical argument playing over and over in her brain, she breathed and pushed the thoughts from her head, she needed this._

_Draco sat in the darkened room his head cradled in his hand, when he heard the door squeak open his head shot up, he had expected a bags packed "I'm leaving" Hermione or a teary eyed "let's never talk about this again" Hermione, he had not expected a nearly naked Hermione gently biting her lip, the whisper of a grin playing on her flushed cheeks._

"_Hermione?" he squeaked_

"_Malfoy, do you trust me?" she asked, her voice hesitant but determined. _

"_of course I do." He whispered back, trying to be respectful, trying to keep his eyes on hers and not gawp at her body. _

_She placed the tip of her wand on his chest and whispered an incantation he'd never heard before she pointed the wand at her own chest and uttered the same spell. "I just cast a time delay memory modifier, it's something I was working on a few years ago, I shelved it after I failed to find any practical uses that weren't sinister. We have three hours, three hours which will have no consequences… we can say or do anything and then tomorrow we can go home and it'll be like nothing's happened, I know It's weird but these are my conditions… maybe I'm not ready to deal with all the consequences and maybe that's mental but… I want to… I want you… I just want to be free for a little while and not have a lump in my chest for the next decade." She finished plainly, she had rehearsed it and while the real thing had been a little more erratic she'd gotten her point across. _

"_right." Was all Draco could muster, on one hand she wanted him and on the other she wanted to forget about him. "you know I'd never hurt you?." He said looking at his hands. _

_"I know, I'm just really scared… and when I was in the toilet this seemed like a good idea but now I've done it… I'm sorry, it was a bad idea! I'm a horrible human being!" She grabbed her face and made to run back into the bathroom but he was standing, and pulling her hands away from her teary eyes and reddened skin. _

"_Three hours eh?" he whispered stepping closer to her. _

_"yup." she sounded dumb but his proximity and the laced cake seemed to be dulling her brain. _

"_I can say anything? No consequences?" he asked as he gently pushed her back to the white wall, she nodded as she bit her lip. He smiled to himself, this was rather liberating, all those things he wanted to say to her but was too scared… he could do it now, he could tell her everything and then maybe later when he'd got his wits about him he'd find this memory hidden and know how she felt. _

_"I like you Hermione, very much." He whispered as he dipped his head and kissed her collarbone lightly, with trembling hands she pulled his face to hers_

"_I like you very much too." She said quietly, still terrified to make eye contact._

"_well that makes what I'm about to say a lot easier then." He mumbled as he kissed her temples. "I have compiled a list Granger" he kissed her shoulder "of what my shrink calls my 'triggers'" he ran his finger under her bra strap._

_"triggers for what?" she asked breathlessly._

"_triggers for you, things that trigger my desire to kiss you, to hold you, to throw you down on that bloody mess of a desk in your office and…" he lifted her bodily and threw her onto the bed "fuck you really hard." She giggled a little at his smirk as he made his speech. He crawled onto the bed and straddled her ankles, still fully dressed. _

"_This is no laughing matter, I have been driven to the point of distraction Granger… remember last week when I burnt m eyebrows off?" he ask as he leant down and kissed her left hip. She nodded as she grinned and chewed her lip._

"_That was because of you chewing your pen lid. Which is number 5 on my trigger list." He smiled as he kissed her navel, she let out a guffaw at his statement "oh you think it's funny? You pop that thing in your mouth and you nibble and nibble and then you prod your pout and all I can think is 'I want to kiss her'" she looked at him with furrowed brow._

"_Is this too much?" he asked as he kissed her knee "am I freaking you out?" _

"_You'd think so wouldn't you… but no." she giggled as he tickled the back of her knee with his index finger. In all honesty the fact that Draco was so enamoured by her was flattering, she'd never pictured herself as an object of desire and here was a man telling her he had a list, a list of things just about her being sexy… she shuddered. _

"_then there's the thing you do with your nose, when you're tired you stroke the bridge of your nose and I can't help but think "I should be doing that." Draco was on a roll, the massive amount of cannabis he'd consumed mixed with the liquor and coffee had completely stripped him of all inhibitions._

"_When you're concentrating." Hermione said quietly and he looked at her with confusion "what?" he asked._

_"When you concentrate really hard" she sat up, pulling her legs from under him, folding them under her so she was kneeling directly in front of him "you get a little crease here." She lifted her hand and lightly touched the centre of his eyebrows "and you pout… and I think… it just makes me really want to…" unable to verbally convey her feelings she leaned towards him and pushed her lips to his, she lifted tentative hands and placed them in his hair. He pulled her closer, wrapping his arms around her neat waist "when you get mad." He mumbled into her mouth and she giggled "when you get mad… it makes me…" he thrust his covered but steadily stiffening groin onto her thigh… letting her know how he felt. She grinned and began unbuttoning his shirt slowly._

"_when you chew your lip" he murmured._

"_I do that all the time" she laughed, only half way through her unbuttoning._

"_I know." he responded before lightly nibbling the offending lip. "I think in future whenever you feel the need to chew your lip you should come to me and I'll do it for you." he said as she finished unbuttoning his shirt and he shrugged it off and pushed her flat on the bed, he kissed her from head to toe, all the way commenting on the perfections he had noticed in their time together, he especially was fond of thigh her perfectly rounded white thigh._

_As Hermione lay panting, her hair akin to Helena Bonham Carters and her thighs twitching from the post orgasmic surges coursing through her body she knew that what they had just done would probably be listed as one of the best sexual encounters of all time. He was lying on his stomach also panting, the feathers and fabrics hiding the massive, lopsided grin he was sporting._

_He pushed himself up a little and rolled onto his side "how long we got left?" he asked her as he traced lazy patterns on her stomach. She looked at the clock and felt a great deal of relief "an hour and a half" she responded, giddily. "Surely you can't be ready for another round?" she asked almost challengingly. _

"_gimme 5 minutes and a sandwich." he said grinning as he leaned over and planted a wet kiss on her open mouth. He threw himself onto his back and stared at the ceiling, his hand reaching out to clasp hers._

_"can we talk?" he asked, his voice serious. _

_"I thought the girl was meant to say that" she laughed nervously and subconsciously pulled away from him, he gripped her hand tighter. _

"_Why were you so scared? Why didn't you want to… you know remember?" He continued, stroking her hand lightly with his thumb.  
_

_She sighed heavily and began "I don't like being vulnerable… and to be honest you never really said anything either." She rolled to face him, knowing that she could afford to be open and defenseless for the next hour and a half. _

_"I think I made it kind of clear…" he laughed rolling to face her "well not entirely" he amended after seeing the dubious look on her face "I tried to, I was just so unsure of how you felt and you know I didn't want to make you uncomfortable… plus if I screw this up then pretty much that's my whole life screwed, you're my only real friend, every other person I'm friendly with likes you better." He sighed dramatically… "but we were talking about you." _

"_like I said, I'm not a fan of being vulnerable, and… well it's like you said… Ron took my confidence away… and to be honest… and I swear to god if you smirk at this I will spend the next hour in the bathroom… I just didn't think I was you know… pretty or sexy enough for you." Draco did not smirk, he looked sad, he stretched out a finger and ran it round her face. _

"_If I contributed to this… I know I did, I was a dick of boy…" he started_

"_but you're a good man." She interrupted_

"_I'm sorry Granger, I mean look at you" he pulled the sheet she was holding to her body away exposing her naked form "you're a freaking goddess" he leaned forward and kissed her belly button and she giggle loudly, jack knifing round his head in reflex. _

_"I'm ready" he growled into her stomach_

_"What?" She asked in-between giggles._

"_You said "Surely I can't be ready" well I'm ready." He whispered gruffly as he kissed his way over her abdomen, chest and neck finally resting his lips on her, hovering his body in a half pushup he smirked, put the weight on one elbow and grabbed one of her hands in his. He pulled her hand down to his now incredibly erect… manliness and grinned "that right there… that's how sexy you are." He chuckled as she blushed expecting her to shy away, instead with a strength he didn't know she possessed he found himself being flipped and pinned down by her, her head hovering over his, her hair creating an auburn, curly cage. _

_"Really?" Draco asked with a smile, but an intense expression dancing on his eyes._

_..._

_Hermione panted heavily, her slick body resting on his, her legs still astride his, his body still inside her… she'd never felt this close to another human being, she was terrified and exhilarated._

"_that was…" Draco croaked_

"_Amazeballs." Hermione laughed and made to dismount but he held her fast, his fingers digging possessively into her hips. _

"_I don't want this to end Hermione" he said seriously, his voice ragged with either exertion or emotion "I don't want to wake up tomorrow and have this be a dream I can't remember." He sighed pulling her down to kiss him, hoping to convey the intensity of his feelings with a kiss. _

"_I promise, we'll get another shot… next time I'll be braver." She whispered in-between peppered kisses. They lay there for a little longer kissing and whispering promises of "next time"_

"_How long have we got?" Draco groaned feeling the pit of his stomach get heavier. _

_"25 minutes" Hermione sighed sadly "We need to shower, get dressed, sort ourselves out… if we wake up like this with no memory we'll think the worse." She sighed and stood making her way to the bathroom. "You coming?" she smiled shyly indicating he should shower with her. _

"_In a minute" he said, waiting for her to fully enter the bathroom, He stretched over the bed and found her pocket book, he grabbed a pen and quickly scribbled a message 'BE BRAVE HERMIONE' before ramming the book and pen back into the bag and vaulted from the bed and followed his love into the shower. _

_It was a last minute dash to get dressed and hide the evidence, Draco and Hermione's inability to not touch each other seemed to be the major hindrance but with a minute to spare they lay almost fully clothed side by side in the now spotless bed._

"_one minute left Granger, any last words?" Draco said trying to sound puckish, she could hear the disappointment masked in his joke, she rolled on her side and kissed his cheek, he turned his head and met her lips with his. She pulled away and gnawed on her lip for a second before opening her mouth to speak "I do want to say one last thing Malfoy" She breathed nervously "I… I think… I lo…" and then everything went blank and there was a whooshing sensation as the spell to effect knocking her out…_

Hermione sat on her desk, a blush to rival any Weasley's plastered on her face, she rifled through her bag and retrieved her pocket book, it opened naturally at the dog eared page, Be Brave Hermione, she read it over and over again and shakily breathed in, her legs shaking she nervously walked from her office and across the hall to Draco's sanctum. Sparks and George watched her nervously from the door of their lab, not knowing what was happening, only knowing that something was. Hermione stretched out a hand and knocked tentatively there was no answer, she reached for the handle and turned it shakily the door swung open to reveal an empty office, no Draco in sight.

TBC

**A/N I'm not going to lie, this chapter killed me (hence the delay) I've written and rewritten and then just thought "Feck it" and ploughed on with it… enough tinkering… I can't write graphic sex you need to know this, the words just… they stick… I can't do detailed penetration cause in my opinion while the act is brilliant the actual details of it are kind of gross… so with this all said there was the chapter… which took me over a month to write (I still don't think it's great).**


End file.
